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Read another section of the report:
defining income generation
necessity v distraction
leading from the front
capacity is key
sweating your assets
sharing good practice
Whichever markets a school decides to target, either in the short or long term, it is important they ‘sweat their assets’. Which assets and resources are eventually leveraged to generate additional income will very much depend on each individual school but these fall in to three main categories:
Physical
Can the estate and infrastructure be used to generate income? These could include the letting of school facilities such as sports halls, classrooms, sports pitches, theatres and catering facilities for local community clubs, businesses and private individuals. It is estimated that schools are being utilised for only approximately 55% of the time.
Any commercial letting or residential letting of such a building would not be sustainable in these circumstances. Income generation projects could therefore take place throughout the year or alternatively during the summer holidays only, thus dealing with some of the concerns that might be raised around core purpose. For some this might seem a half measure but for those wishing to bring about a gradual shift in approach towards income generation this could be a way of gradually introducing such activities.
Remember, schools are businesses. It will be the entrepreneur in us that will prove just how much extra revenue can be generated to assist in enhancing dwindling budgets!
Knowledge Capital
Does the school have particular expertise or skills in areas such as IT or financial management that it could maximise?
Trading
Is there overcapacity that could be better utilised? This could encompass grounds maintenance services, catering, caretaking and payroll services.
Case Study
St James School in Exeter is a PFI secondary school, one of five in the city. As a PFI school it means that whilst the school can be used for lettings and income generation during out of school hours, the school has no control over or direct benefit from the activities.
In March 2014 Browne Jacobson wanted to run its first education conference in Exeter and was looking for a venue. One of the topics of the conference was income generation from school assets and therefore St James was proposed as a suitable venue.
St James runs a Catering GCSE and a group of 18 year nine students were tasked with organising and running the event as part of the curriculum delivery of the GCSE, splitting themselves into ‘task groups’ and identifying key areas of responsibility from catering and quality assurance to customer care and logistics.
The event has enabled the students to see the practical implementation of what they are studying and has enabled them to see the business side of the catering course.