Transform Society Challenge

Our flagship programme, the Transform Society Challenge, supports universities and schools and colleges in creating bespoke community-problem-solving events that give students valuable practical experience of thinking about and addressing challenges in their locality.

The Transform Society Challenge provides students with a framework for addressing community problems and the opportunity to work with peers and community stakeholders to examine both the causes and the impact of individual challenges and how they are linked to other challenges and local circumstances. We then give students the chance to independently develop and refine their own solutions and present back to a panel of interested experts.

We have run Transform Society Challenge events at York, Leeds, Liverpool, Middx, Leicester, Bristol and Hertfordshire Universities and focused on a range of issues including student safety, community relations, regeneration, reducing knife crime, and improving mental health.

In delivering the Transform Society Challenge we work closely with the faculties, departments and sixth forms and their students to collaborate with local experts and stakeholders to address real-world local problems and develop innovative potential solutions.

Students on the Transform Society Challenge develop and implement a wide range of valuable and transferable workplace skills, including:

Organisation
Time management
Communication
Teamwork
Initiative
Creativity
Negotiation
Presentation

What students get out of it

One of the greatest obstacles to students’ understanding of public service is the difficulty in accessing relevant work experience. The Transform Society Challenge provides the perfect opportunity for students to gain direct exposure to a complex issue, meet professionals that work in the field and understand how the work of dedicated individuals and teams can have a genuine impact on people’s lives. Through the challenge, students can explore career pathways that they might never have encountered before and develop a broader understanding of how society works at a local level and how some people, through no fault of their own, can be left behind. The Transform Society Challenge is an opportunity for students to:

Work together with their university, school or college and local community on an important local issue
Build tranferable skills to boost their careers prospects by addressing societal issues and injustices
Explore how complicated deep-rooted social issues can be, how to think about them and how to approach solutions
Get involved in something important, build friendships, listen/learn and have fun doing something practical
Feel the satisfaction of making a real difference to people and communities
Develop experience and skills to enhance their CV and to discuss at interview with prospective employers