Positively impacting our communities & philanthropic partnerships
Our philanthropic partnerships are built on trust, shared values and a commitment to making a difference. By working together, our goal is to impact and create lasting change in the STEM communities we serve.
Focus areas
- Local and corporate partnership support and fundraising activities
- Increase presence in forums driving change on social and environmental issues
Targets
- Raise £100,000 for charities
- Help 1,000 young people from underrepresented groups gain employability skills
FY24 highlights
- Employability skills support to over 280 young people from underrepresented groups via charity partners
- Hit £30k fundraised for Foothold and supported their members with employability skills
- Funded and co-hosted STEM-focused work experience programme for young people from underrepresented groups
FY25 next steps
- Launch 'STEM Futures' programme to enhance our employability skills support and STEM careers advice to young people from underrepresented groups
- Embed more social enterprises into our recruitment operations
- Launch 'The Materna Fund' (as legacy of our Founder, George Materna) to offer funding to two STEM university students from underrepresented groups and a programme of employability skills support to all applicants
Focus areas
- Local and corporate partnership support and fundraising activities
- Increase presence in forums driving change on social and environmental issues
Targets
- Raise £100,000 for charities
- Help 1,000 young people from underrepresented groups gain employability skills
FY24 highlights
- Employability skills support to over 280 young people from underrepresented groups via charity partners
- Hit £30k fundraised for Foothold and supported their members with employability skills
- Funded and co-hosted STEM-focused work experience programme for young people from underrepresented groups
FY25 next steps
- Launch 'STEM Futures' programme to enhance our employability skills support and STEM careers advice to young people from underrepresented groups
- Embed more social enterprises into our recruitment operations
- Launch 'The Materna Fund' (as legacy of our Founder, George Materna) to offer funding to two STEM university students from underrepresented groups and a programme of employability skills support to all applicants
Partners
Our philanthropic partners are selected to complement our ED&I strategy.
Read more about our partnership goals, collaboration and events over the last year:
Alongside these partnerships, over FY24 we have created and launched 'The Leap Programme' to assist ex-services personnel in their transition from military to civilian life.
This programme, in collaboration with Leonardo, is specifically focussed on providing the training, development and experience to access long-term careers in Systems Engineering.
Volunteering
We encourage our colleagues to partake in our market-leading volunteering scheme, which enables them to claim 5 days unpaid leave for supporting either Gattaca’s philanthropic partners, or our clients’ volunteering initiatives. We also offer a matched scheme where we reimburse half of up to 5 days per annum to support a volunteering initiative or charity of their choice.
The majority of our volunteering over the last year has focused on offering employability support to young people from underrepresented groups via The Talent Tap and AFBE. Programmes have incorporated:
We have also partnered with The Talent Tap to deliver and fund an in-depth 12-month programme of support for 13 young people in STEM from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This funding has included:
Fundraising
This year we continued fundraising for Foothold (the mental health & wellbeing charity for engineers and technologists) through our colleagues taking part in:
The Great South Run
The Brighton Marathon
The Isle of Wight Ultra Challenge
We also supported many other causes that resonate with our colleagues, including:
- ‘Giving Tree’ gift initiative and charity golf day for Southampton Hospital’s PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit)
- Santa Fun Run for the children’s hospice, Naomi House & Jack’s Place
- Wear a Hat Day for Brain Tumour Research
- Coffee morning for Macmillan hosted by our Whiteley HQ
- Donating shoes to an underprivileged school and Christmas gift boxes to a children’s home via our Cape Town office
Memberships, Affiliations & Signatories
Alongside our partnerships, we maintain additional relationships to support our social strategy.
We are proud members of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), a professional body promoting best practice and high-quality service standards across the recruitment industry.
We are also signatories to the REC’s Diversity Pledge, Armed Forces Covenant, Inclusive Employers, the Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter, and the Women in Defence Charter. Additionally, we are members of the People Matter Charter, Equal Skies Charter and we also hold Disability Confident Employer status.
