A good education, as is often said, is just about the best investment that a person can make. It brings, after all, a whole lifetime of dividends – and not just for students but for society at large. A well-educated society is a productive society; a place where innovation can thrive. Great schools lead to great ideas, and great thinkers who can bring them to life.
That’s why we’re involved in educational programs all over the globe – from “LifeSmarts” in the UK to the Ambassador Program in the USA, to multiple initiatives across Asia and Africa. It’s also why you’ll often find our Australian team in the seaside suburb of Frankston in Melbourne’s south-east.
We were first introduced to McClelland College in 2014 through an external program called Business Class. Designed to help students in need realise their full potential, the initiative connected assorted businesses with low-SES schools to see if they could come up with impactful ideas to make a difference. “Business Class” closed in 2019, but Experian’s collaboration with McClelland continued. The past seven years have seen us donate laptops, develop curriculums, implement new business practices, and offer scholarships to Japan.
Work experience placements are another big part of the collaboration, while McClelland College also tapped Experian’s data and analytics capability to develop a social media led marketing strategy that has helped to increase the student population by more than 300.
Only last month, we were thrilled to launch a first-of-its-kind professional development course for 16 of McClelland’s future female leaders. Divided into four modules, the program will see several senior women from Experian’s upper ranks come to the school to pass on some of their wisdom and learnings.
A number of the Experian team have become involved with the College over the years, volunteering their expertise in whatever ways it might serve, and forming long-standing and trusted relationships.
We’ve seen them address classrooms, dispense career advice, conduct mock interviews, and join the College council. And just as a good investment should, this is one of those collaborations that just keeps paying off. Our people have told us that spending time in the community, particularly with a school like McClelland College, helps them accelerate in their development, it inspires them and enables them to connect more deeply with everything we do as an organisation.
We’re incredibly proud of the last seven years with McClelland College and look forward to many more years working together closely with the students, teachers and wider school community.