Westcott Williams

Legacy programme

An invaluable opportunity for anyone who believes their skills could make a difference. Undertake a four-week working sabbatical in Southern India.

As well as the work we do with our clients, we also have an active and well-established social responsibility programme. (We commit 10% of staff time and 10% of net profit to social impact objectives.)

This commitment has led us to develop partnerships with organisations and medical professionals in developing countries, offering our consultancy skills to make a real difference to the lives of disadvantaged people all over the world.

As a result, we can offer an exceptional personal development experience for executives who wish to apply and test their experience and skills in a unique way.

If you fancy taking up the challenge, you'll be working on a structured four-week assignment with organisations such as Aravind Eye Care System, the world's largest and most productive eye care service provider; The Association of People with Disability, Bangalore; and Seva Foundation, the international eye care funding organisation.

It's challenging and motivating work and the assignments are structured to ensure that you achieve pre-agreed personal development objectives while delivering a work project of real value to the partner.

Sarah Keith, National Media Sales Strategy manager for SBS, Australia's multicultural and multilingual broadcaster, summarises her experience of completing an assignment with Aravind:

"After 15 years working in the broadcast media and learning a range of management skills I wanted to apply my learning to a different industry...without a safety net. I was extremely disappointed with the MBA learning process and felt that there were other, more practical ways to develop my management capability."

Sarah was involved in devising and implementing a series of workshops for Aravind's consultants helping them to develop new skills. She also undertook site visits as part of the post workshop programme to review their learning and help ensure the workshop and training's practical application had been successful.

"Working on a project that is initiated and organised from two continents with the client based in a third is challenging. Even the most expert questioning may not have exposed the real objectives, so letting go of preconceived ideas about losing sight of the original brief is extremely important.

"My three key areas of learning were:

• the project itself - how to get a piece of work completed in an extremely busy, geographically scattered organisation
• the subject - completing more detailed learning and seeing theories applied in a classroom situation
• from Aravind itself - anything is possible if you believe in the goal

"The fact that the project was based in Tamil Nadu province, India, was the least challenging thing about the work - the location and different culture was the bonus!"

President - International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, World Health Organisation HQ, Geneva.

"This (Consulting Skills) workshop has been the jewel in the crown of our capacity building programme."

For more information about our unique legacy programme call 01225 731406 or email