Established in 1994, Southwestern UK Ltd provides challenging summer work opportunities for British and other European students to gain powerful CV-building experiences which will help prepare them for their careers. These students, who come from many universities and a wide variety of academic courses, learn to run their own direct selling businesses during the summer. Successful students are then invited to join Southwestern’s ongoing leadership development programme, which has been helping students develop themselves for nearly 150 years.
This provides an unparalleled opportunity to have a ‘mini-career’ whilst still a fulltime student.
In addition to having the opportunity to make money in proportion to the results they achieve, students selected for Southwestern UK develop real-world skills, which are an essential foundation for career success in any field.
What are these skills? According to a Spring 2009 article in Prospects, the UK's official graduate careers website,
"The competencies or transferable skills that are particularly popular with graduate recruiters include:
Communication - ability to communicate orally, in writing, or via electronic means, in a manner appropriate to the audience;
Teamwork - being a constructive team member, contributing practically to the success of the team;
Leadership being able to motivate and encourage others, whilst taking the lead;
initiative - ability to see opportunities and to set and achieve goals;
Problem solving - thinking things through in a logical way in order to determine key issues, often also including creative thinking;
Flexibility/adaptability - ability to handle change and adapt to new situations;
Self-awareness - knowing your strengths and skills and having the confidence to put these across;
Commitment/motivation - having energy and enthusiasm in pursuing projects;
Interpersonal skills - ability to relate well to others and to establish good working relationships;
Numeracy - competence and understanding of numerical data, statistics and graphs.
Additionally, private sector employers like to see that applicants have some
commercial awareness - an insight into how firms operate, what is happening in the business world and the impact this could have on their organisation."
Through operating their own businesses during the summer months, students gain these skills – and much more.
Associations
Southwestern is a member of the Direct Selling Association of the United Kingdom (
www.dsa.org.uk). As a Direct Selling Association (DSA) member, The Southwestern Company has pledged to adhere to the Code of Ethics set forth by the DSA. As a condition of admission and continuing membership in the DSA, Southwestern is bound to abide by the code's standards and procedures. The
DSA Code of Ethics speaks to both the consumer and the seller. It ensures that member companies will make no statements or promises that might mislead either consumers or prospective sales people. Since 2005, the Southwestern Company UK Ltd have met the Office of Fair Trading approved consumer code of practice. Southwestern is also a member of the Direct Selling Associations (DSA) of the United States and Canada, as well as the Bristol Chamber of Commerce, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and is a Charter Member of the Better Business Bureau. In addition, we are affiliated with the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and all six of its regional divisions.