University of Lincoln Careers & Employability

Linking Up is a Social Enterprise Company. The core business is a Childcare Voucher Scheme. This is a salary sacrifice scheme in which individuals can sacrifice a part of salary through their employers (so pay no N.I, tax etc) and can use that to directly buy childcare vouchers. The employer takes the money and gives it straight to Linking Up who put it into a childcare account.

Childrens Links has Business Development Managers who will go out on the road and get businesses to sign up. They then employ people to meet that contract.

Number of employees: 2.5 members of staff

Linking Up was born out of Children’s Links in 2005. It is basically the trading arm of the charity but had to be set up in its own right due to Children’s Links charitable status. Any profits that the company make are put back into the charity.

The company’s mission is to basically raise as much money as possible to feed back into the charity. The company is growing and is in an advantageous position as they have the expertise of Children’s Links. The company currently has 162 accounts.

The company have tried lots of different sales and marketing strategies but their most successful has been to partner other organisations and charities and supplying to their clients/ customers.

• A very small company so individuals can get the chance to experience everything.
• A good chance to see how a business is run.
• The company is small and so a great opportunity to see the workings of a small business and how to cope in the recession/ budgeting etc.
• Its very innovative and a growing charity.
• Get the chance to see both Linking Up and Childrens Links due to the close affiliation.
• The company is a Social Enterprise company and this is very much a motivating factor.

• Operational and Customer Service roles
• Inputting – Populating the system
• Credit Control – chasing up employer payments

Because the company is made up of such a small team everybody is responsible for taking the projects forward – Paying providers and raising invoices. There is a good culture within the company.

• Due to the small staffing requirements, any permanent opportunities would be on a needs basis. However, there may be opportunities for graduates to come to Linking Up for:
• Work Experience
• Project Work/ Internships (see below)
• Childrens Links have their BDMs who are always securing new bids and projects and so they would be very interested in hearing from students/ graduates interested in working with children.

• Linking Up and/or Children’s Links would be happy to consider students for work experience/ volunteering opportunities.

 ‘The graduates that we have had have been good and able to use their common sense, using their initiative. What I would say has needed the most work is how they come across and present themselves at interview. In my experience, some students clearly don’t do enough research into the company and in our instance, research into just what is a social enterprise company…’

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