Focus areas
- Supporting the future of our STEM communities
- Fundraising and volunteering for charities close to our colleagues, geographical locations or industry sectors
- 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
FY25 highlights
- Helped 235+ young people from underrepresented groups gain employability skills
- Launched 'STEM Futures' employability programme
- Launched 'The Materna Fund' awarding financial bursaries to two engineering students from underrepresented groups
- Formed two new partnerships with The Consent Collective and University Technical College Portsmouth
- Arranged 700+ volunteering hours for both our colleagues and our clients
- Increased charity fundraising by 122% (vs. 2024)
- Set up a Fundraising & Volunteering Employee Resource Group
FY26 next steps
- Deliver our ‘STEM Futures’ programme to underrepresented young people through on-demand, online and in-person sessions
- Launch ‘STEM Futures Phase 2’ to raise awareness of the diverse range of STEM career pathways
- Develop a social hiring strategy
- Relaunch our Volunteering Policy to further improve charity contribution
- Award additional student bursaries via 'The Materna Fund'
- Continue to support and advocate for our EDI and industry sector charity partners
In FY25, we expanded and strengthened our community engagement and philanthropic impact.
Our achievements have earned us a place on the shortlist for a forthcoming award.
Alongside our partnerships, over FY25 we have created and launched the ‘STEM Futures’ programme, designed to bolster the ’real world’ employability skills of young people from underrepresented groups.
The programme features 13 accessible e-learning and webinar modules covering the entire job search process, as well as key topics relating to wellbeing and resilience within the job search. The ongoing delivery of this programme is via our charity partners and our key clients.
This year our employee volunteering reached a record high.
We actively promote participation in our volunteering program, which provides up to five days unpaid leave to support either Gattaca’s corporate charity partners or our clients’ volunteering initiatives, plus a matched scheme that encourages employees to volunteer with a charity of their choice.
Our volunteering efforts are focused across two areas:
90 mock interviews conducted with The Talent Tap, UTC Portsmouth and Portsmouth University
Employability workshops delivered to 120+ secondary school aged girls at AFBE's event to elevate the profile of careers in engineering
Created 'STEM Futures' portal including 13 webinars to bolster employability skills
This year we arranged three key volunteering initiatives for our employees, increasing our impact by inviting key clients, including some of our contractors, to take part. The results were:
330+ volunteering hours transforming the garden area at Mountbatten Hospice, Southampton
2,500+ books packed for The Children’s Book Project supporting underprivileged children in London
1,000 trees planted in association with the Hampshire Forest Partnership
Other volunteering, to support both our local communities and our clients' charity initiatives, included:
Supporting Amey Rail’s railway legacy, Project Octopus
Volunteering alongside BWT Alpine at Farmability
Christmas gift and food collections for PICU Southampton and Fareham basics bank
Supporting a children’s home, homeless shelter and children’s food scheme in Cape Town
To continue the ongoing enhancement of our programme, we also conducted a volunteering employee survey. These insights are now informing the development of both our volunteering policy and the range of opportunities available to our staff.
Fundraising.
In response to employee feedback, this year we revised our fundraising strategy through introducing localised departmental fundraising budgets. This approach has empowered each department to select charities that are either meaningful to their employees, or their respective industry sectors.
As a result we:
Increased funds raised by
Supported over
different charities
Organised or supported
fundraising team events
Highlights included:
- Jurassic Coast Ultra Challenge for Macmillan
- Snowden climb for Sophie’s Legacy & Service Dogs UK
- Cycle pledge for Unique
- Cold Water Dip for Young Lives vs. Cancer
We also facilitate net pay charity donations via our Benefits platform.
