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Media releases > PricewaterhouseCoopers partnership
PricewaterhouseCoopers and VSO announce partnership
(17 December 2004)
PricewaterhouseCoopers has become a VSO Business Partner. VSO is an international development charity that works through volunteers, each year recruiting over 400 skilled professionals who work alongside local colleagues in some of the world’s poorest countries.
Almost a quarter of the jobs VSO fills each year are for business and management professionals and its Business Partnership schemes enables corporate partners to offer their staff a unique secondment and professional development opportunity. Through its membership of the scheme PricewaterhouseCoopers staff can apply to be released from their role for periods of between six and 12 months to undertake a voluntary placement.
Placements vary between the 35 countries that VSO works in, but common to all is the emphasis on skill sharing. Business volunteers will usually find themselves working for a local organisation or government department that is in need of advice and guidance in areas such as developing monitoring and evaluation methodology, devising effective strategic planning processes or implementing effective staff training and management systems.
PricewaterhouseCoopers senior recruitment manager, Jane Munro said of the firm’s partnership with VSO:
This represents a real opportunity for our staff to use and develop their professional skills in hugely rewarding, but challenging, environment. Working in recruitment I am increasingly aware of the aspiration potential employees have to work for a firm that is socially aware and to use their skills to a greater lasting effect. By becoming a VSO Business Partner we can really address this need.
VSO Corporate Partnerships Manager, Glenda Smith, added:
We are increasingly hearing from our partners that there is greater demand from their staff for career breaks and secondments opportunities. VSO desperately needs the professional skills of their workforces, so it really is a case of all sides winning. Our Partners retain their staff, the employees invariably have an experience of a lifetime and the communities within which VSO works benefit from vital professional skills.
VSO is holding a number of staff information events at PricewaterhouseCoopers offices around the country, including, Birmingham on 2 February, Leeds on 3 February, Glasgow on 10 February and Bristol on 16 February.
VSO offers its corporate partners a range of ways to become involved with the charity, including staff secondments, volunteer sponsorship, payroll-giving schemes and employee involvement opportunities, such as treks and other fundraising activities. Firms interested in finding out more should email corporate.partnerships@vso.org.uk
Editors' notes
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