In 2003, Julian Bass secured a high-powered job as an IT executive in the UK office of an international technology firm, developing training programmes for customer relationship management users all over Europe. He had experience with cutting-edge technologies such as J2EE and UML, and enjoyed business class travel.

Three years on, Bass is living in a simple, single-storey dwelling 130 miles outside the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Each day he travels to a local further education college where he is training the staff to develop and run their own IT infrastructure.

It is a massive challenge – the entire college has to share a single 58kbps dial-up internet connection between all students and staff. ‘It means that it takes six hours to update the anti-virus software each week,’ says Bass. ‘But to upgrade the connection just to 128kbps would require the college to sacrifice five teaching positions. It certainly makes you look at things differently.’

Bass is in Africa as part of a career break, working with VSO, the voluntary services organisation. He hopes that two years in Ethiopia will provide both personal and professional benefits.

‘I know I’m developing great managerial skills because I have to win hearts and minds here, rather than relying on issuing orders – so I am getting really good at negotiation and persuasion,’ he says. ‘I think I am also becoming more resourceful, and just broadening my horizons generally.’

A number of factors persuaded Bass to take a career break – the breakdown of a relationship, dissatisfaction with his lifestyle, and a corporate decision to relocate his job to the US. ‘I went to my bosses and said: why don’t I try this for two years, since my job really doesn’t exist any more,’ he says.

Bass is not sure if he will return to his old employer when he gets back to the UK – but he feels that he will have gained enough skills to further his career elsewhere.

‘I’m not interested in the same things any more,’ he says. ‘I can see myself working with an international charity or development group down the line. I think it is going to be a life-changing experience.’