Unlocking the potential of working with charity and community groups

John Blake recently argued that Andy Burnham’s premiership will usher in a new era of community empowerment.

Universities have the opportunity to build good partnerships to solve regional problems and address the challenges faced by their students, the wider voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector and local economy.

In my experience delivering programmes for universities with the VCSE sector, I’ve seen the success these programmes can have when partnerships are well designed. They can be transformative for student outcomes, curriculum design, and regional relationships.

However, they are fragile and getting these partnerships right is a long-term prospect. The capacity to grow, maintain and sustain partnerships is significant, and when trust breaks down, the impact can have much bigger consequences than one academic year.

Curricular partnerships need to work for everyone

Many institutions are exploring a mix of work-based learning, community engaged learning, and placement provision within modules to embed employability within the curriculum. These partnerships enable students to apply learning in a real-world context, whilst also reducing barriers and connecting them to local employers.

But what the design of these opportunities often misses is the delicate balance required between academic, student, and partner needs. This means designing an opportunity which facilitates strong teaching and assessment, whilst challenging students’ skills and experiences, which in turn generate impactful outputs for the VCSE partner. The risk of a poorly designed programme is that all three parties undertake a lot of work for few tangible outcomes.

At all stages, programme design should be intentional and reflective. Module design should start far in advance of delivery, mapping out what each of these stakeholders need across the learning journey. This could include partnership agreements; embedding drop-ins or skills workshops for students; and an assessment process which supports students to reflect on their experiences.

Getting placements off the ground

Placements with the VCSE sector facilitate universities delivering their civic strategies, tapping into local labour market needs.

Successful placements enhance perceptions of students and the university. Through a long-term strategy, these partnerships can be a gateway into deepening regional opportunities across the VCSE sector and beyond.

Regarding placement quality, students working with VCSE organisations have the potential to learn more in agile, fast-paced environments, along with building connections with employers which could lead to further work or to bolstering their CV and job applications.

What often prevents these placements from getting started in the first place is the logistical burden which universities create in how they administer partnerships, with processes often designed with businesses in mind. VCSE partnerships need to be bespoke or risk losing partners at the first hurdle.

VCSE organisations care about processes which are straightforward and easy to understand, providing quick timescales from application to placement where possible. Universities need to consider how they are designing and marketing these opportunities directly to the VCSE sector, but the work doesn’t end there.

These partnerships succeed where they are built on mutual understanding of need.

This is realised by students that are well prepared, VCSE organisations that can articulate their needs, and where support by the university mediates student experience and the partner organisation relationship.

There is much which can go wrong even once the placement has commenced, as poor support for students leads to a bad experience for the organisation and potentially the student, whilst poor understanding of what the VCSE needs will harm relationships.

Building active citizens

Students care passionately about a range of social and environmental issues, but often space is not given in the curriculum for tackling these, and students find themselves increasingly time-poor to volunteer in a traditional sense.

The government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review released in November 2025 highlighted the demand and interest from students and the school and college sector to strengthen citizenship’s role within the curriculum, with the review reflecting that “citizenship education helps young people to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to play a full and active role in society.” The same can be said for the power of volunteering, social and environmental action in shaping our graduates of the future.

Accreditation builds a pathway for students who want to act on issues they care about. And in doing so can build credits, or receive recognition through awards which are recognised on LinkedIn like digital badges or in their CV, such as the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR).

Volunteering brokerage, which many universities run through careers departments or the students’ union, can be too light on university engagement for organisations and students to get the most out of these partnerships. Accreditation offers the chance for universities to structure programme design, which in turn serves partners and students better.

Accredited volunteering programmes can align with strategic priorities too, such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or areas which complement institutional expertise like healthcare or education, whilst adding capacity to an increasingly stretched VCSE sector.

There is potential in VCSE sector partnerships, but to unlock it universities need to get the basics right. Developing equitable partnerships which address local challenges can add capacity across the region and strengthen students’ skills, experiences, and employability.

Universities can be excited about what possibilities might be shaped by more VCSEs integrating into the academic and extracurricular experience of student life, and the long-term vision for how they want to position themselves within the region.