School for Social Entrepreneurs

Who we are

School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) exists because the challenges facing our communities — poverty, poor health, climate change, inequality — are too big and too urgent for any one sector to solve alone. What we've learned, over more than two decades, is that when you invest in the right people and give them the right support, extraordinary things happen.

SSE isn't a traditional school. We don't lecture. We create the conditions for people to learn from each other, to take risks, and to grow — in a way that's genuinely accessible to people who haven't always been well-served by traditional institutions. We've worked with thousands of leaders of social change and distributed millions of pounds in grants. The organisations we support reach thousands of people.

If you're someone who cares about this work, who brings both skill and purpose to what you do, and who wants to be part of an organisation with serious ambition for what comes next — we'd love to hear from you.

Our culture and values

We can’t fix issues like poverty, inequality, health and climate change alone. We are fully conscious of the scale of the challenge that faces the country and the urgent need to respond. That’s why the School for Social Entrepreneurs exists, to empower and equip people with entrepreneurial ideas and solutions to grow the social economy.

The social economy is a movement of organisations and enterprises that prioritise people and planet. Together, we are committed to tackling the greatest social and environmental challenges of our time.

Our Purpose: To back people with purpose and build a better world together.

Our Vision: A fair and sustainable world where the potential of all people is realised.

Our Mission: To equip people with skills, funding, and networks to realise their potential, improve lives and protect the planet

Our 5 Values

Integrity: We do what we say we’re going to do. We take ownership and responsibility for our actions. We rely on open, authentic relationships.

Entrepreneurial: Purpose-led and ambitious, we combine creativity with commercial thinking to deliver real impact. Resourceful and solutions-focused, we turn ideas into sustainable growth and meaningful results.

Impactful: Everything we do is ultimately about creating impact and achieving our vision and mission. We are impact-focused in all we do.

Collaborative: We go further together. By partnering openly and supporting our social entrepreneurs and fellows, we amplify their work, ask for help, share solutions, and enjoy the journey.

Equitable: We value talent and insight, recognising unequal barriers. We actively amplify underrepresented voices in our programmes and in how we work.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Diversity Monitoring

SSE is committed to eliminating discrimination and actively encouraging diversity amongst our workforce and board by developing a team that mirrors the rich diversity found in our student population.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and will not subject any applicant to unfair treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. All our recruitment practices comply with the Equality Act 2010

To offer equal opportunities, prevent discrimination and support under-represented groups we encourage applicants to complete our online diversity monitoring form, which you will be prompted to opt in or out of when completing your online application form.

The information on this form will be used for monitoring purposes only and will play no part in the recruitment process. All questions are optional. You are not obliged to answer any of these questions but the more information you supply, the more effective our monitoring will be.

In accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018, the information you provide will be held confidentially and can only be used if you give us your consent.

As part of any recruitment process, SSE collects and processes personal data relating to job and volunteer applicants. We are committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations. Our data protection policy can be found here: https://www.the-sse.org/your-data/