Sage Volunteers Support Strides Towers School With Career Readiness Day

Volunteers from Sage – the global market leader for integrated accounting, payroll, and payment systems – have partnered with Sesôr Africa , a Nigerian non-profit organisation, to provide career readiness guidance to Strides Towers College in Lagos, Nigeria.

Career readiness programmes focus on providing students with the ‘soft’ knowledge and skills that are necessary to get a job but often aren’t provided by traditional educational curriculums. This includes, for example, guidance on how to develop a CV, prepare for an interview, and business etiquette.

While young people from disadvantaged communities may have acquired the necessary qualifications or ‘hard’ skills, it is often this knowledge that they lack, which becomes an obstacle for them in finding a job in their field.

This volunteer work is part of Sage’s celebration of Mandela Day (18 July), former South African President Nelson Mandela’s birthday, which calls on people from all walks of life to devote their time to helping improve the lives of others.

Continuing during the week of 18 July, almost 400 Sage volunteers in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa will be volunteering for a variety of causes and organisations. This important day is marked every year through various initiatives led by Sage Foundation - the global philanthrophy initiative working around thw world, which Sage launched last year.

Sage Foundation is committed to transforming lives by investing time, money and expertise and technology to create sustainable social and economic opportunity in local communities where Sage works around the world.

Sesôr Africa works to empower survivors of emergencies to improve their lives by providing disaster relief and supporting rehabilitation of survivors and their families. It is currently working with around 30 children at Strides Towers College who have lived through emergency situations.

Volunteering important to the millennial workforce

Sage’s recent global study looked at the key characteristics, attitudes and behaviours of young entrepreneurs around the world and found that doing social good and staying true to their values is especially important to this generation Compared to a global average of 69%, 80% of South African and Nigerian millennial entrepreneurs said that doing social good was important to them; and 78% in South Africa and 83% in Nigeria said they would sacrifice profit to stay true to their values – against a global average of 61%. These statistics demonstrate the importance of volunteering while at work in the modern workforce.

Sage Foundation has created a model of ‘2+2+2’: donating 2% of employee time each year, 2% of free cash flow and 2 of Sage’s smart technology products for any charity, social enterprise or non-profit organisation. On Mandela Day, Sage volunteers have an opportunity to contribute to the global campaign as part of their volunteering allocation for working with causes and NPOs that are close to their hearts.

Says Ivan Epstein , President of Sage International and Chairman of Sage Foundation: “As an organisation that believes in a socially-responsible world and in playing a positive role in communities and with entrepreneurs, Mandela Day holds a special place in our hearts at Sage. We are proud of how enthusiastically our people are following the example of our former president as they spend the week of 18 July helping improve the lives of others.”