PricewaterhouseCoopers - Raising Expectations

Two key projects have been undertaken, funded and project managed with PwC: ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘Traffic of our Stage’. During ‘Great Expectations’, four primary schools and one secondary school watched the production of ‘Great Expectations’ at the Royal Exchange Theatre. The students then worked on their own interpretations of scenes from the play before coming together to bring the individual scenes into a combined performance. During ‘Traffic of our Stage’, pupils aged 14-19 years from City College’s ESOL (English as a Second or Other Language) developed and produced a performance based on the themes of ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

PwC used their involvement with these schools as a way developing the English language skills of students from these schools, they were also keen to ensure that their engagement went beyond corporate sponsorship and became a way of developing sustainable partnership with the local schools.

The project has significant leadership from David McKeith,a PwC North West senior partner, who is also a Director of the Theatre and has sat on its development committee for a number of years. A key aim was to have 5% of the workforce (40 people) participating and to increase volunteering long term across the North West by 10%. This was built into overall aspirational goals to improve literacy and student confidence and to raise awareness of The Royal Exchange (and the power of the performing arts generally). The team from PwC spread the word by capturing and disseminating feedback from those staff who observed the sessions and providing regular updates in the firm’s internal newsletter to 14,000 staff, as well as producing a DVD with interviews from key participants.