The Community Social Responsibility (CSR) programme

As of the academic year 2019/20, the implementation of the CSR initiative has primarily encouraged personal development among learners at MCAST while having a positive impact in the local community. The initiative has enhanced relationships with the CSR partners, in supporting public value outcomes. All learners at MCAST have the opportunity to carry out community work at non-governmental organisations, sports associations, care homes for the elderly and local councils, as part of their training programme.

During the academic year 2019/20, MCAST's CSR provided more than 500 placements to students. Following the COVID-19 restrictions, no more placements were offered but students were given other options to complete their CSR component.

As of the academic year 2020/21, the collaboration between MCAST and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has provided more than 1 000 placements. Through the CSR programme, MCAST students have had the opportunity to carry out community work across a wide variety of areas. These include: the environment, culture, education, sports, and social care. During their placements, participating learners contributed through administrative work, coaching in different sports disciplines, helping out in homes for children and the elderly, maintaining websites and social media platforms and helping NGOS in their daily work by caring for abandoned animals, among others.

During the last quarter of 2020, MCAST launched its CSR Facebook page and its CSR webpage. The latter includes online registration, a list of partner organisations and a list of CSR opportunities. Both students and lecturers have welcomed the CSR webpage as this has facilitated the registration process and provided students with the necessary information related to CSR. NGOs also have the facility to post CSR opportunities on the MCAST CSR webpage, while also making themselves more visible.

Throughout 2021, collaboration with organisations was enhanced to further strengthen already existing collaborations while building new ones. In this regard, through meetings with NGOs, placements for MCAST students were secured and interested organisations were assisted in the preparation, planning, implementation of processes. Processes were streamlined to ensure that some of the major pitfalls that can undermine the success of collaborative partnerships are avoided.  Up to date, there are over 179 organisations who have built collaborative partnerships with MCAST  and more than 1 740 placements have been provided through the MCAST/NGOs collaboration.

During 2022, the CSR set-up was further strengthened.To enhance MCAST's collaboration with  NGOs,  a strong outreach campaign was initiated and since March 2022, 83 meetings with NGOs were held.  During these meetings further collaboration was discussed and ways how to promote the sterling work carried out by the NGOs on the CSR webpage and social media were explored.  MCAST  has also encouraged students to share their experiences with MCAST staff members.  Students' testimonials were uploaded both on MCAST social media and also the CSR webpage.  2 495 students registered and were accepted to carry out the community work with more than 650 organisations.

Throughout 2023, partnerships were forged with organisations across various sectors to secure placement opportunities for MCAST students.   In this regard, weekly meetings were held with NGOs to ensure that enough placements would be available and to better understand the NGOs' needs.  Throughout the year, MCAST worked on a  system to track the number of placements secured annually, assess the quality of placements, and gather feedback from students and employers to continuously improve the programme.   An awareness campaign amongst organisations about the benefits of hosting MCAST students as part of their CSR initiatives through targeted networking events was launched.  Understanding the NGOs' needs has also helped the CSR department remain flexible and adaptable to the changing needs of both students and organisations, adjusting placement strategies and offerings accordingly to ensure optimal outcomes for all stakeholders involved.  By implementing these strategies, MCAST can effectively ensure the availability of annual placements for its students while also fostering positive relationships with the corporate community through CSR initiatives.

During academic year 2023-2024, MCAST students carried out a total of 46 260 hours of community work within their CSR units. These hours were dedicated to community work with different NGOs, mainly those related to animal welfare (26%), sports (21%), and education (10%). The latter included homework support clubs, children's groups, and catechism groups.