Even before the creation of the Jesuit Education Foundation in 2014, school management was a topic of great importance for the network of our schools: without sound economic management, in fact, even the noblest educational mission cannot compete in the marketplace. Since the first time we relied on the contribution of a consulting firm – which photographed the situation of all our schools, identifying their structure and peculiarities – many steps forward have been taken: school management continues to represent for us a very valuable work, which over time has allowed us to monitor some critical situations and to accompany the institutions to overcome even difficult moments.

The Foundation was born, in fact, precisely from the observation that individual schools struggle more on their own: possessing all the skills necessary to excel in every area is often impossible for a single college, but it can be achieved by strengthening the network dimension. Certainly by deepening the apostolic mission of the Society of Jesus in the field of education, but not only that: we also act as a unifying factor for the institutes in other areas – such as leadership training and the reform of governance systems – which are no less important in today’s panorama.

Here, then, is our commitment to school management, which since November 2014 sees the involvement of a permanent working group (formed by the heads of management of individual schools) and which is divided into three main areas: management control, property management and development.

Management control

Among the conditions of eligibility to the Foundation set out in the membership regulations there is one that gives a good idea: “Schools commit to applying the guidelines on management practices defined by the foundation, in relation to issues such as – by way of example and not limited to – accounting principles, ordinary and analytical bookkeeping, management control, use of any common software, contractual and human resources management practices”. By concretely addressing a number of issues, these guidelines do in fact enable schools to act correctly locally and economically. But the greatest help offered by the Foundation to its members, in this area, is that of management control proper, which analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of individual institutions: there is forecasting (which helps schools to make their own business plan, annual or multi-year), there are periodic reports (analysis of the current situation using indicators, to correct any management errors) and there is, finally, the final report (once a year, it is verified whether the schools have achieved the goals they set). Thus, each school is helped to make the best choices based on objective information and data.

Property Management

In the planning of educational services, the places of learning represent a central element: the layout of classrooms or the presence of sports facilities or spaces to allow students to realize their creativity are at the center of reflections among experts, at an international level. If a school decides to modify its real estate structure, it is necessary that long-term investments are decided with the utmost awareness. And this is where the Foundation comes in, supporting the colleges in extraordinary operations on their real estate assets: whether it is a question of spaces to be redesigned, or of real estate assets that are not being used, the institutes are accompanied both in the analysis of investments and in the choice of the best solutions aimed at the school’s objective.

Development

One of the most common problems in today’s Italian school world is the distance between what schools offer and the expectations of families. Therefore, the Foundation helps colleges to build their educational offerings in an appropriate way: the best intentions, the best facilities and the best faculty are sometimes not enough, if one does not understand how to fit into the trends of educational excellence on the market, building a user base compatible with one’s history and mission. In addition, in an increasingly complicated and competitive landscape, even on the economic front, becomes fundamental aspect of fundraising, with the aim of facilitate access to studies and at the same time to help schools in their development projects aimed at innovation: for this reason we believe it is essential to create a lifelong community, that is a group of people (starting with alumni, of course) linked together not by the momentary interest but by the adherence to an educational project. The Jesuit Education Foundation supports the colleges both through common fundraising operations, to support all the colleges, and by directly helping individual schools that want to give life to specific and worthy projects agreed upon with the Foundation itself.