Getting permission from your employer

Balancing work and running a club

After school clubs usually run from 3.45 or 4pm for one hour.

This means if you work full-time you will need to ask your employer if they are happy for you to leave work early on the day of your Design Club.

Explain to them that Design Club is a social enterprise (Community Interest Company Limited by Guarantee) and not for profit. See our company listing.

Reasons an employer may want to support you

1. Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Many large companies have some kind of CSR programme or remit. Volunteering can help fulfil corporate objectives to 'give something back' or invest a percentage of profits into the local community. Quite a few companies now encourage employees to put a small proportion of their work hours towards CSR. Some will have volunteering hours to allocate and may actively be looking for a good cause to support.

2. Continued professional development (CPD)

Running a Design Club improves an employee's understanding of design thinking and helps to hone other skills such as leadership, public speaking, collaboration, coaching and mentoring others.

3. Improved employer brand

Association with Design Club and support of local clubs shows that an employer is a strong advocate of design thinking - this will help attract high calibre UX, service and product designers who appreciate and understand its importance.

4. Improved employee pipeline

By inspiring the next generation of design thinkers, Design Club is helping to ensure that the UK has plenty of homegrown talent to fill demanding digital design roles in the next 5 - 10 years. If an employer is prepared to support Design Club in this way, we're happy to provide them with further information (for example, to add to their website or annual report), as well as giving them a shout-out on social media. You can also credit them if you write a post for our Meet The Mentor blog series.

See our template email to your employer.