About
Name: Anna-Maria Ranftl
Nationality: Austrian
Programme: MSt in Social Innovation 2023-2025
“This programme showed me how to build and maintain networks to collaborate with other private, social or public organisations on shared interests, as well as how to act inside an organisation to initiate change.”
As a social worker I am used to striving for the biggest impact with often limited financial and time resources. Being part of a big NGO that offers addiction care services means working within existing organisational and societal structures, (eg. bureaucracies). You learn to navigate and mediate between beneficiary’s needs, organisation’s possibilities, and societal conditions like legislation and funding. In order to do so more efficiently it is necessary to gain a meta position which allows you to look for socio-political levers and to have an idea about social economics. And this is where I felt stuck. I was looking for a course where I can learn how organisations but also societies as a whole function, which theories they are based on but also how to find practical approaches for social issues. During the whole application process I was unsure if my background as a social worker was enough to choose a business programme even though I have experience with conceptual work and team leading. I am not interested in starting my own social venture (yet?) but I wanted to find a way to make social change inside an existing organisation, to use the available infrastructure and networks to preserve resources and use synergies. Further, I wanted to continue my education to have more possibilities in future job applications.
Obviously, I have learned so much more. It is not just the content of the programme and the appreciative atmosphere during the lectures but beyond that, the different experience of my colleagues coming from all over the world with such diverse backgrounds.
With the mix of online content, group work, residentials and assignments you gain a wide range of knowledge, tools and practical approaches regarding management and leadership skills as well as ideas to tackle many social or environmental issues. This course allows me to think about my organisation’s input and outcome from a different angle. When you are working to fulfil the beneficiaries’ needs on the one hand but with public financing on the other, you balance advocacy work and not biting the hand that feeds you. Therefore, it is essential to understand the political system and dynamics, the organisation’s position and scope in this, and my own room for manoeuvre. In my case, this programme showed me how to build and maintain networks to collaborate with other private, social or public organisations on shared interests, as well as how to act inside an organisation to initiate change.
Working and studying at the same time is quite exhausting but it holds a lot of potential. Many theories you read about can be applied to your current work situation. Every work issue can be put in a theoretical context. Many things shared by lecturers and also my colleagues can be imagined in different settings. You need good time management but can do many things at your own pace. Not to mention, you still get to be part of the Cambridge way of life during the residentials. All of this makes me proud and grateful to be part of this programme. It allows me to be even more passionate about fighting inequality and striving for a positive impact.