The University of Manchester tops leader board for school governor recruitment

The University of Manchester once again tops SGOSS’* leader board for school governor recruitment and placement, continuing to be the number 1 organisation, ahead of Lloyds Banking Group, the NHS, the Department for Education, PWC and KPMG.

Through the University of Manchester School Governor Initiative (UMSGI) the University currently has over 170 members of staff volunteering on governing boards in local schools and colleges and the numbers continue to grow at a steady space.

The response from alumni to the School Governor Initiative has been overwhelming and in the last year alone, 124 alumni have registered to become a governor adding to the 250 who had already signed-up the previous year.

In 2015, The University of Manchester was responsible for 20% of the governors SGOSS recruited in the North West, and 27% of placed governors in the North West were University staff or alumni. Our staff and alumni combined also accounted for the most placed governors from one organisation across the whole of England.

Stephanie Lee, Head of Widening Participation and Outreach said: “We are immensely proud of the success of this social responsibility signature programme. We are committed to ensuring the skills, knowledge and experience of our staff and alumni continue to support schools and colleges in areas where there is difficulty in attracting people with relevant skills onto governing boards.”

University of Manchester staff have many of the skills schools and colleges want represented on their governing boards including: finance and accountancy, legal, business and marketing and HR. If you can contribute these or other professional skills to a local schools or college, please get in touch with the Initiative’s Project Officer alison.gregory@manchester.ac.uk. More information about the initiative, including case studies from current staff and a video about the role of a governor can be found on the UMSGI pages on StaffNet.

*SGOSS – Governors for Schools is a national charity responsible for the recruitment and placement of schools governors. The University has partnered with SGOSS to support the delivery of its School Governor Initiative.