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Volunteer Overseas Business Support Associate

We are placing ICS (International Citizen Service) volunteers to work as Volunteer Overseas Business Support Associate for a 12 week placement.

The Challenges Worldwide ICS Programme offers young people the opportunity to play a key role in delivering sustainable development projects. Our volunteers deliver support to growing enterprises in Ghana, Uganda and Zambia through delivery of the Challenges Worldwide Enterprise Support Framework (ESF).

Our volunteers do not need previous business experience to deliver the ESF as during the programme we deliver weekly face to face training in Professional Consulting.

Training is accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and after the programme volunteers will be invited to complete an assessment and gain their Level 5 qualification in Professional Consulting at an exclusive rate for volunteers.

As a Challenges Worldwide ICS volunteer you will work together with a local volunteer to have a direct positive impact on small to medium sized enterprises as they seek to access trade and finance deals. These experiences will develop your professional skills, enhance your employability and help you recognise the vital role of economic development in reducing poverty worldwide.

Funding

The programme is fully funded by the UK government so you don’t need cash or qualifications to take part – just the courage to try and the resilience to see it through. However, to show commitment volunteers are required to fundraise to secure their placement – the proceeds of the fundraising are used to ensure the sustainability of the ICS programme.

Placement Start Dates:

  • September 2016
  • February 2017
  • June 2017
  • September 2017
  • January 21018

Challenges Worldwide ICS operates in:

  • Ghana
  • Uganda
  • Zambia

Past volunteers have worked in a variety of sectors from businesses producing banana wine, coffee liquor, healthy fast food, nutritious cereals, bio-mass for clean energy, natural pineapple juice and many more.

Challenges Worldwide provide all volunteers with:

  • Training in business basics
  • Learning resources to guide you on placement
  • In-country and remote personal and professional support
  • Access to a Vocational Qualification in Professional Consulting

This is a fantastic opportunity for young people to gain international business experience and enhance their employability.

Job Type: Voluntary

Apply Now

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Support Project Optima

Project OPTIMA has been setup by Challenges Worldwide volunteers working with Rainland Timber in Kitwe, Zambia.

OPTIMA stands for Organic Propagation Through Independent Micro-franchise Agents; we want to help our fuel efficient, clean cooking stoves organically propagate throughout Zambia by utilising a micro-franchising business model.

Deforestation is a critical issue in Zambia. Our solution, known as Project OPTIMA, has the potential to let Zambians overcome this environmental disaster and the first step to success is your help. What is project OPTIMA? Organic Propagation Through Independent Micro-Franchise Agents. In the developing world, micro-franchising business models have seen significant success. They empower the grassroots level of society to take ownership of providing commonly used goods to consumers everyday. We developed the idea of using this model from existing cases in Zambia, such as MTN and Airtel network providers, who have seen success selling mobile phone credit from the urban jungles to the deep rural bush. Even the government owned corporate giant ZESCO use a micro-franchise business model in Zambia.

Our aim is to select agents such as women’s groups to sell the stoves and wood fuel to their local community. For the pilot scheme we will create a micro-franchisee package for each agent, which will include:

  • 3 cooking stoves
  • 80 Kilograms of wood chips
  • Marketing materials
  • Sales and product training
  • Support until the end of the pilot

 

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Edward Lowe|The Power of business mentoring

By Edward Lowe (Challenges Worldwide Volunteer)

Whilst volunteering with Challenges Worldwide in Zambia earlier this year, I was placed on a project with in-country volunteer Emmanuel, a recent graduate. Beyond being a great personality to be around, he had this strong hunger to learn and improve despite having little previous experience in business, particularly in a consultancy role.

Over the course of three months, we worked together to improve his communication skills, presentation abilities and technical capabilities. His rate of improvement was fast, and the company we were working with were so impressed as to offer him a role at the end of our placement. Being able to impart some of my knowledge and skills to him, and watch this improvement, was the most pleasing element of my entire placement.

This mentoring benefitted both of us hugely

Emmanuel gained presentation, PowerPoint and Excel skills, whilst I improved my teaching skills through this process. Mentoring is something I had not had any experience with, and it tested my technical knowledge when passing this on to someone else. Emmanuel also offered a fresh perspective about how to tackle problems that I found enlightening. Coming from a different culture can have such a huge impact on your worldview.

Yet in the United Kingdom, there seems to be an adversity to seeking advice and mentoring from other businesses. Local to any business there are many individuals with decades of experience who can help new companies and their founders overcome the many problems across a range of functions such as finance, marketing and operations. It is hard for new firms to cover all of these areas.

Meanwhile, mentoring helps experienced professionals gather a new perspective from start-up businesses, and better helps them to see innovation in technology and strategy. It also gives a sense of wellbeing to pass on knowledge to the next generation, helping a local entrepreneur achieve his dreams by lending a supporting hand.

What can organisations do?

Large organisations can develop systemic programmes to ensure that mentoring support is provided in a sustainable away that leaves a lasting impact. For example, management consultancy Accenture’s ‘Skills to Succeed’ programme has had huge success in the mentoring field. By using its consultants’ skills to help others develop their coding, strategy and operational skills has developed and grown thousands of businesses. Over 1.2 million people have already been helped by the program since 2011.

The crucial difference between mentoring and other forms of help or aid for businesses is that it does not build a dependency. Instead, providing mentoring and developing skills gives the business themselves the opportunity to succeed, and therefore develops a sustainable impact. This is something which other forms of business aid, such as grants, have struggled to achieve.

By providing mentoring to young businesses, we can develop a more vibrant and competitive local and economy. replicating this model internationally can help to spur on international development in a meaningful way. Experienced employees should consider working with us through Challenges Worldwide to see how you can help promising SMEs in developing nations. Alternatively, if seeking to be a mentor or receive advice locally in the UK, head to mentorsme.com.

By all being involved in a business mentoring system, we can develop mutually beneficial relationships that help everyone fulfil their potential.

James TL 3
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Lessons Learned from a Team Leader| Natasha Porter

“So what exactly will you be doing in Africa and what precisely does a team leader do?” These are questions that I have been asked many times before, during and after my placement.  It’s also a question that I asked myself a lot before I boarded my flight to Lusaka, Zambia to be a team leader with Challenges Worldwide.

I knew I wanted to volunteer abroad whilst building leadership skills that would be useful to my learning and development as a consultant.  After some intensive googling I came across Challenges Worldwide and thought it was a perfect match.  Challenges Worldwide is a pioneering social enterprise that offers volunteers the opportunity to work with small to medium sized enterprises on 12 weeks placements.  It was everything I was looking for in a volunteer placement; building upon my consultancy experience to lead a team to deliver sustainable changes.  As I excitedly submitted my application little did I know the adventure I had just signed up to?

Challenges

Being a team leader is both incredibly challenging and rewarding.  One of the main challenges I faced was adapting my management and training style to the different personalities, experiences and cultures.  This was especially true for delivering the weekly Chartered Management Institute (CMI) learning sessions.  These sessions were an excellent opportunity for volunteers and team leaders to be trained to an internationally recognised standard on core consultancy skills.  However, as a facilitator it was often challenging to cover the basic business fundamentals whilst keeping those with business experience still engaged.  I learned to link the theory and tools with how I have used these in my job as a consultant.  I also ensured that CMI classes were interactive through group discussions, activities and exercises that combined useful practical learning with vocational training

Successes

As much as we had many challenges, we also had many successes.  One of my proudest moments was watching the Mid Programme Review (MPR) presentations. At the MPR presentations the teams present on their work to date in their enterprises, including their challenges, successes and findings.  To add to the pressure they were presenting to a panel of industry experts including the Department for International Development (DFID) who would ask questions and provide feedback.  As much has the team had prepared and practiced in advance everyone was nervous as presenting to a room of 50 isn’t an easy job, especially to a panel of experts! However there was no need for all the nerves as it was an excellent day and as a team leader it was an amazing opportunity to reflect on the progress and growth of the volunteers.  To see how much they had learned and achieved over such a small period of time was incredibly rewarding.

Development

Through my experience as a team leader I have enhanced and developed many skills that are hugely transferable to my job as a management consultant.  Prior to this placement I would have called myself a good manager, but not a leader.  However, the role as a team leader is essentially a free, intensive, three month leadership training course.  It has taught me so much about leadership and the importance of developing and inspiring.

This experience has also being incredibly rewarding from a cross cultural experience. By living in a host family and having a Zambian counterpart it was an amazing opportunity to be fully immersed in the local cultural and ways of life.  This has helped teach me the importance of cross cultural differences and truly highlighted the needs to be adaptable, flexible and understanding.  Yes, every country has different cultural norms and approaches which can be daunting as well as frustrating – but these differences should be embraced and celebrated. This is an incredibly important skill in today’s interconnected global world.

I equally learned the importance of admitting when you don’t know the answer.  As a team leader you generally do get bombarded with questions from bus routes, exchange rates, supply chain theory to even the chances of rain today (and I am most definitely not a weather woman!).  To be a good team leader you don’t need to know everything – realistically we are still volunteers and we are learning as we go the same as the team. If you don’t know the answer – that is fine – you just need to work through the problems logically and ask for help when you need it.  In a group of 42 there are always going to be other people that can help and support you and that you can learn from.

Potential realised

I still can’t quite believe that my three month placement is over.  It has been one of the most challenging, frustrating, enlightening and rewarding things I have ever done.  When I applied I thought it would be a great opportunity to gain real life leadership experience and enhance my CV whilst experiencing a different culture.  Little did I realise how much I would truly learn and that it would spark new career interests. I plan to continue within consultancy, with much more of a focus on training and learning and development. In working with Challenges Worldwide, I’ve learned that leading and managing volunteers is hard work, but rewarding. I would recommend this programme to anyone wanting to explore their leadership potential while discovering the beauty and diversity of Africa.

Ali Gordon
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Ali Gordon: Saltire Scholar and Founder of River Bank Design

June 2014-September 2014

Kampala, Uganda

Why did you choose to apply to Challenges Worldwide for your Saltire placement? What was it about ICS and Challenges which appealed to you?

I was looking to gain business skills in a challenging environment, away from the standard office type job. I was looking for something more adventurous, where my actions may have a greater impact than in a standard internship.

 

When you applied, what did you hope to gain from a Challenges Worldwide placement?

I was looking to gain early stage business experience in growing an SME. I wanted to gain exposure into how to build business plans, keep accounts, market and sell a product/service at grassroots level.

I was seeking to be in an environment that fostered an entrepreneurial spirit working and living with individuals of different cultural backgrounds but with a shared interest for sustainable development of social enterprises.

 

How did you find the pre-departure process, eg fundraising, training, preparations, and the support you received from Challenges and ICS throughout the pre-departure stage?

The pre-departure process was fairly straight forward. Challenges were helpful with vaccinations and there was plenty of support for the fundraising aspects. There was definetly a strong community with the UK mentors before we departed, this started with the two day briefing with CWW in Edinburgh and continued through groups in social media.

 

Can you summarise your placement and how you found living and working in another country and culture? What business did you work in, what was the host experience like, how did you find working with a national counterpart, and what did you learn from these aspects of the programme?

My placement was with Green Heat Ltd (www.greenheatinternational.com) who are biofuel specialists implementing onsite solutions to convert human and agricultural waste into sustainable sources of energy. I acted as a business and engineering consultant, exploring enterprise avenues in developing biogas and briquette production.

Working and living in a foreign non-western culture was extremely exciting. I was motivated throughout the entirety of my programme, largely due to my personnel interest in the companies work and the openness of the company directors Gabriel Okello and Vianney Tumwesige.

Working with a national counterpart had it’s pros and cons. It was a great opportunity to be immersed into their a local community but there were differences in work ethic and academic backgrounds. These difficulties were mostly overcome after the first two weeks by dividing tasks up and setting realistic targets. We went on to become a successful little unit.

 

What was your highlight of your placement?

1) Researching an alternative agro-waste kilning technique and developing a business proposal that would be pitched to the carbon Bureau of Uganda for a carbon trading scheme involving 8 of the largest flower farms in and around Kampala.

2) Visiting the final school a government funded initiative with Green Heat to install 10 fixed dome biogas latrine digesters. Please see the Seed Development Award video below:

What was your biggest challenge during your placement? How did you overcome this and what did you learn from this?

My biggest challenge at the early stages of the placement was ensuring a consistent communication link between myself, my counterpart Rachael and the company directors. I could see from other members on the programme they were completing excellent business/marketing/sales plans but were struggling with their host company to get the key messages across and implement such plans.

I dealt with any potential communication gaps by organising a weekly meeting with my counterpart and company directors every Friday afternoon to do the following:

  • We would collectively work on action plans for the following week and evaluate the work completed of the week just passed. Here we could schedule events, actions, activates and communication links and update on a shared doc. Expamples are shown bellow:
    https://issuu.com/alistairgordon/docs/a.gordon_weekly_action_plans
  • Bring everyone together to present:
    • Research findings (e.g mostly engineering streamlining of production)
    • Enterprise opportunities (e.g potential customers/distribution networks)
    • Development of marketing and business plans
    • Summaries of site visits and meetings

To keep the meetings exciting and motivating we changed the venue most weeks and one of us organised a social event afterwards. Venues and activities included:

  • Macare University – with tour of research facilities
  • The garden of my homestay with meal and pool tournament afterwards
  • Kampala’s Rugby clubs – lively pork barbeques!
  • Shearaton Hotel – swimming pool
  • Chinease resturants – (Gabriel loved Chinese food from studying in Beijing)

These meeting and events created strong ties and were key to my continued working relationship with Green Heat upon returning to the UK.

 

Now that you’ve had time to reflect on your placement, what impact has it had on you and your personal development? Did the placement have an impact or benefit for your business, counterpart and /or host community?

A massive impact no doubt. Personally I gained the experience/confidence to start a business (Riverbank- see below). My counterpart, Rachael gained the marketing experience she was seeking. My host company have grown extensively now employing 40 members of staff full-time and winning numerous contracts including the following:

http://www.securingwaterforfood.org/blog/2015/11/3/securing-water-for-food-announces-awardees-for-third-call-for-innovations

 

  1. What have you been doing since your placement?

Since graduating, I co-founded Riverbank, a creative communications business to improve the outreach of Engineering and Ecology based projects. Our first business proposal was presented by the CEO of Green Heat at the prize giving ceremony for the seed development award in Nairobi, Kenya. Riverbank have been working with Green Heat ever since to enhance the information outreach of their products and services.

Our site is not quite live but a a little more information can be found here:

http://jamienayar.github.io/

When is does go live it shall be here:
www.riverbank-design.co.uk

 

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From Accra to the “Garden City”

Challenges Worldwide are pleased to announce that from June we will be working with SME’s in Kumasi, Ghana

For the sustainable growth of Ghana, it is vital there are healthy and successful small and medium size businesses all over the country. Kumasi is the commercial, industrial and cultural capital of the region and therefore a great place for Challenges Worldwide to offer support to growing businesses by:

1. Empowering the people who start and run them
2. Upskilling the people who work for them
3. Connecting trade and investment organisations to them
4. Accrediting each step of this interrelated learning journey

We will be working closely with Kumasi Hive (an innovation hub supporting makers and entrepreneurs in Ghana to quickly prototype their ideas and develop products that can be brought to market) to identify SME’s who can benefit from key business analysis and recommendations which have the potential to lead to trade linkages and access to finance and investment.
Kumasi is home to KNUST, the country’s foremost technical university. Many of its graduates go on to found start-ups –but they move to Accra when they do so.By working together, Challenges Worldwide and Kumasi Hive hope to not only encourage and support talented young Ghanaian’s to stay in Kumasi to start their business venture, but also to ensure they are able to access the same internationally recognised backing that is available in the capital.

If you would like to give Ghanaian entrepreneurs the support they need to grow, back Kumasi Hive on Kickstarter.

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