Js

The JS Group works with universities and employers – we strengthen student engagement, employability and success, paying particular attention to the needs of students from under-represented socioeconomic groups. We can trace our roots back to 1751 when the bookseller John Smith and Son was founded in Glasgow. The aim of the business now is very much as it was then: how can we support universities and students to deliver better outcomes. For much of our history we did this by providing on-campus bookshops. Today, we work with universities to develop student engagement solutions based around bursaries and resource provision that drive engagement and deliver better student outcomes. We also work with corporates (alongside our universities) to support their drive to recruit more diverse graduates. For universities: Aspire Engage and Aspire Connect have been used by universities since 2006 and we are the leading provider of cashless bursary solutions and of major learning resource provisions in the UK. Since Aspire was launched, well over 500,000 students have benefited from Aspire schemes. For employers: our Diversity into Work mission launched in May 2022 and we’re partnering with corporate graduate recruitment and early careers teams to jointly create content, learning activities, workplace tasters and internships that will provide students with much-needed support for their career trajectories.