South Africa
Namibia
Corporate Responsibility
Upskilling for a better future
At M&G Investments, we define corporate responsibility as the way our company behaves and how we manage our impact on society and the environment.
DOWNLOAD OUR 2023 CSI BROCHURE
The theme across all our corporate social investment commitments can be linked to education and skills development. Every year, we commit substantial resources to driving this essential cause for our people and the broader society, too. Much of this is focused on upskilling people from designated groups. While funding further education for staff, we also identify key skills the local financial services industry requires and sponsor external black students. We achieve this through our initiatives set out below.
- M&G Investment Analyst Development Programme
- TSIBA Business School support and internships
- Leadership Excellence And Development (LEAD)
- Educating the public through events, written and AV content
Supporting black-owned businesses
In this space, we fully subscribe to the approach of ensuring greater economic participation by small black-owned businesses. Part of this is through actively identifying BEE-accredited suppliers for procurement and allocating our spending mindfully, with a view to empowering relevant, deserving organisations to succeed and grow.
We feel strongly about this aspect of transformation, for example by directing brokerage spending to black-owned stockbrokers; in this way we have achieved the maximum available points in this FSC Scorecard category.
Empowering communities for sustainable success
For us, Corporate Social Investment (CSI) is two-fold: firstly, being a responsible corporate citizen by giving back to our communities; and secondly, enabling staff to support causes close to their hearts in their communities. It’s not only about funding, but also lending support and resources to empower these organisations for sustainable future success.
CSI is an important part of our corporate responsibility, and is overseen by our Transformation, Social and Ethics Committee (SET), which is a formal sub-committee of our Board.
Through our broader corporate CSI initiatives, we have chosen to focus on education as the cornerstone of all individual progress and the ability to achieve a decent standard of living. We deliberately partner with well-established experts on the ground to improve education at different levels of schooling, including early childhood development programmes, primary and secondary school education and tertiary learning. This comes with the aim of developing human talent, realising individual potential and transferring practical skills to those young people most in need, while increasing the number of previously disadvantaged people actively participating in the SA economy.
If your organisation is a registered NPO with a special focus on education, please feel free to submit your applications for funding to CSI@mandg.co.za.
M&G Investment Analyst Development Programme
An internal initiative that started in 2021, this programme offers individuals who have a passion for investing the opportunity to undertake an intensive development programme towards an investment analyst career. The programme is structured as a two-year fixed term contract, after which participants may apply for permanent roles at M&G Investments or other firms in the investment industry.
Those chosen to participate work alongside our investment analyst team and other staff members on a full-time basis, rotating roles across a variety of capabilities to gain the appropriate experience, knowledge and skills that will put them on track to become a fully-fledged Investment Analyst.
TSIBA Business School support and internships
Through our partnership with TSIBA Business School, we are actively involved in bridging the gap of much-needed work experience for graduates. Since it started in 2014, we have had 15 students recruited into various internships related to their field of study to gain valuable work experience. During their internship, we expose them to the investments industry before either offering them permanent roles or sending them on to their next job armed with skills and work experience.
Leadership Excellence and Development (LEAD)
Aligned to our aim of growing and developing our people, we implemented our own Leadership Excellence and Development (LEAD) programme for staff. We are encouraged that many of our female and Black staff have found this programme rewarding and beneficial for their own growth. The programme is run by an industrial psychologist and themes of feedback from the programme are presented back to senior staff so that the business can learn and make adjustments where necessary.
South African Medical and Education (SAME) Foundation’s sole aim is to help improve the healthcare and education facilities within the poverty-stricken communities in which they work.
Our key project for 2023: we are involved in setting up an Innovation (STEM) centre at a girls’ school in Soweto.
The Life Matters Foundation (LMF)’s programmes are geared to help children cope with the increasing academic demands and the negative influences of the impoverished communities in which they live.
Our key project: Sponsoring two learning centres: a Literacy and a Numeracy Centre.
LEAP Science and Maths Schools (LEAP) offers quality education to students from high-need communities. LEAP schools have mathematics, physical science and English as mandatory subjects.
Our key project: In 2023, M&G provided funding towards the educational costs at LEAP’s three Gauteng schools. This includes funding stationery and supplies, teaching costs and matric study camps.