ANTZ Launches the UK’s First Ever Social Impact Learning Accreditation
Northwest UK, November 18th 2022: Leading social impact organisation, ANTZ, is helping business leaders understand and respond to the ever-increasing importance of social value in winning new work, by launching the first ever social impact learning accreditation, thereby setting a standard for business to deliver impact and legacy within the communities in which they operate.
The qualification is part of a suite of training to create a culture of social impact within an organisation. It allows individuals to follow a journey in gaining a clear understanding of social impact and what it means, how to start embedding it in an organisation and across work processes. It enables innovation and understanding of how to evaluate and report on impact, to then finally build a social strategy aligned to the overall business commercial plan.
The social impact accreditation is designed for business leaders from any size organisation, from SMEs to global businesses, decision makers, owners and anyone connected to social value and/or procurement. The training support will enable a business to embed impact and legacy for the company and its local community and help a business build the foundations to be bid-ready.
Importantly, the accreditation will also help businesses bring clarity to what social impact is, keeping it simple and provide a straightforward methodology to drive engagement with social impact internally and externally.
It will add value to a business’s supply chain by encouraging them to join the social value journey, positively impact and change lives in and out of work and help business and community grow commercially and socially.
Commenting on the new accreditation, Jen Pemberton, ANTZ CEO, says: “Since 2008 ANTZ has been encouraging a business led and community driven platform that changes lives in and out of work. During this time, we have learnt that businesses cannot create a positive shift change within communities unless we give them an accredited standard and platform to embed social impact internally, and this can be achieved through our business led social impact accredited training which is delivered via Teams.
“It is now crucial that business fully understands what ‘social value’ actually means and looks like and this is reinforced by government legislation across the UK; how when engaged properly, it delivers sustainable, tangible change to a community and is genuinely impactful. It doesn’t mean delivering something you think is needed, such as numerous soup kitchens because the media or a Local Authority mentioned homelessness in its region! It is imperative for companies to understand the specific social issues within a particular area and work closely with communities by giving them a seat around the table.”
Showing their support and recognition of the importance of the new accreditation training, Faruk Patel from Saraco Industries who has already completed it says: “ANTZ’ social value training demonstrated how we as a business can align our social strategy with our commercial strategy to maximise impact both in our potential partner communities, but also commercially. The social value training is very clear and it was great to engage with a variety of different organisations at varying stages of their social value journey.”
ANTZ was established in 2008 and works with SMEs, local authorities and government departments, regional construction frameworks, as well as brands such as Atos, Laing O’Rourke, IDNS and Tier 1, helping to grow understanding of what social value is, how it is best delivered, and importantly, how it is measured. ANTZ, has previously been recognised for its ability to support business bring about positive change in the communities in which they operate, via a national award win with its partner Atos – the Institute of Collaborative Working’s Award for Social Impact Working with the Third Sector.