It’s not just me who cares about measuring impact - employers do too

I’ve just finished writing a set of case studies about STEM Ambassadors - a network of 37,000 STEM professionals who volunteer to run engaging science, technology, engineering or maths-themed activities for schools or community groups. Operated by STEM Learning and funded by UKRI, the STEM Ambassadors Programme sees more than 7,000 employers giving over 640,000 hours of their time a year, free of charge, to inspire, enthuse and engage children and young people about the world of STEM.

STEM Ambassadors support learning in the classroom by helping young people to understand how they can apply the concepts they study with their teachers to the real world. They provide inspiration to young people by showcasing the infinite STEM careers opportunities that are available, explaining the pathways to accessing those jobs, and demonstrating the skills that are needed in the workplace. They also help to raise young people’s aspirations as they act as role models, encouraging them to think about their future.

While STEM Learning has a strong grasp of the impact of the programme on young people and schools, they were also keen to get an understanding about what it feels like from the other side: why do employers take part in the STEM Ambassador programme?

This was the focus of my research.

Unsurprisingly, employers testified that they get numerous benefits from the programme. Some talked about the pure joy that they take from being able to leave behind their day-jobs to spend time with young people, sharing their passion with the next generation of engineers:

“I do it because I enjoy it – I don’t need any other rewards! I like to try and create that spark of interest in children…I love to talk about what I do, what other engineers do, and to generate interest.”

Another employer told me how much he learned from the students he worked with and the value this had when he went back to the office:

“Kids are really interesting: they have fewer preconceptions about how things should work, so if they don’t understand something it’s not for a vested reason, and it’s interesting to see how they perceive things. I can learn so much from the kids that helps me do my job better.”

A large technology firm described the value of volunteering as a STEM Ambassador for their employees when it comes to developing new skills:

“We see it as a valuable opportunity for our staff, and particularly for our entry-level talent to develop skills that they don’t get from their day jobs; being able to talk to young people, turning what they do into plain English or explaining concepts. It is a skillset we don’t practice internally as we use a lot of technical language at work.”

Elsewhere, other organisations talked about how the programme made a positive impact not just on their own business, but on their broader industry or sector, by helping to change young people’s perceptions about what a career in STEM is actually like:

“We want to change young people’s perceptions of engineering and the broader rail industry - we know that young people don’t see it in the way that we want them to. Girls often think it’s something for boys: male-dominated, with jobs that aren’t interesting, full of people in high vis jackets on the tracks! But it is much more than that - there are so many exciting careers we can offer!”

Similarly, another large, international defence company told me that the STEM Ambassador programme was an important tool in their work to break down stereotypes:

“It is important for us to raise awareness of the importance of STEM – there is a shortage of engineers, and we need to break down the biases that people have about gender in our industry and what a career in STEM can offer. Our involvement with STEM Ambassadors is pivotal to this.”

However, there was an additional dimension to almost every single employer interview I conducted for this project too, and one which resonates strongly with me.

Employers are also starting to ask questions about how THEY can start to measure their impact too.

We talked about how they want to go beyond the numerical records they keep about their STEM Ambassador activities (e.g. the time they spend, the number of students and schools they reach) to find out how they have changed attitudes, raised aspirations, or improved young people’s knowledge and awareness.

We discussed how they want to help their employees to quantify the individual difference that they have made by volunteering as a STEM Ambassador.

We spoke about the importance of persuading their management to continue to invest time and resource in the STEM Ambassadors Programme and how this means that they need adequate and relevant evidence of the benefits that their continued participation brings to their staff and business as a whole.

I can help with each of these issues.

So, whether you are looking for guidance on how to start to think about measuring impact, advice on how to structure your own impact measurement activities, or a full end-to-end evaluation of your outreach work - click here to get in touch.

The STEM Learning STEM Ambassador s Programme employer case studies will be published this autumn. You can find out more about volunteering as a STEM Ambassador here.