CSR Academy

The CSR Academy was established in 2004 as a resource for businesses and organisations of any size and sector wanting to develop their corporate social responsibility (CSR) skills.

CSR Academy and Business in the Community

Having acquired the CSR Academy brand from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Business in the Community has just announced the results of a comprehensive research project which has helped them determine how best to develop and grow the CSR Academy in the future.

As a major part of this research Business in the Community listened to its members who spoke freely about what training their staff had done and what training they felt their staff still needed in Corporate Responsibility. Patrick Mallon, Director for Benchmarking and Reporting, said, "We are very grateful for the time our members took to speak to us about training and to some of the original partners in the Academy. This information has been invaluable in formulating our plans. We are now looking forward to a really exciting future for the CSR Academy."

CSR Academy re-launch

As a result the CSR Academy will be re-launched in 2008. In its new guise the CSR Academy will be:

A "one stop" shop on CSR training
A shop window on Business in the Community's own training offer
A referral agency to other training sources
A developer of training material
A contributor to professional institutes' training portfolio
The promoter of the "Competency Framework", widening its appeal by integrating into existing professional bodies.

In time and subject to further review CSR Academy has ambitions to become a developer of a Continuing Professional Development route for CSR practitioners.

The next stage of development is to recruit the right team.

Julia Cleverdon, Chief Executive of Business in the Community said, "I am delighted that we are ready to take this next step with the CSR Academy. Business in the Community has been at the forefront of thinking on corporate responsibility for the last 25 years and making sure that we effectively share this knowledge with our member companies and with those who are new to corporate responsibility is vital"