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Our Aims

• To provide benefits for staff and students in terms of employability, the overall student and employment experience, active citizenship, skills development and academic improvement.
• To facilitate closer links between the University and the wider community in terms of the University's social responsibility, accessibility and widening participation policies.

What We Offer?

• A database of volunteering opportunities
• Information and advice on volunteering opportunities
• Matching volunteers to their area of interest and organisation
• Help you through the application processes
• Signposting you to an appropriate service
• Help you if you have any problems while volunteering

Volunteering enhances the future employability of staff and students in a number of ways:

Transferable skills

• Acquiring career-focussed work experience
• Gaining an insight into a particular career choice
• Using new skills in a professional environment
• Gaining a reference that you can use when you start applying for jobs after university
• Enhancing your CV that makes you stand out amongst the crowd
• Gaining access to training and skills development
• Learning transferable skills including teamwork, oral communication, initiative, motivation and enthusiasm, flexibility and adaptability
• The practical implementation of theory in a work based environment
• The achievement of personal goals and identifying and developing transferable skills
• It gives you a chance to experience the setting of your academic work into an employment and career context
• It helps you enhance and develop your knowledge of particular professions and therefore influencing your future career goals
• It enables staff and students to investigate and ultimately define potential career pathways
• Great for establishing contacts and networks within a particular chosen field

Other Benefits

• It allows you to follow on your research interests and keep up to date with contemporary issues and new developments
• Enhances your University’s experience
• Contributing something back to the community
• Broadening your horizons and a chance to meet and work with people from a diverse background
• Having fun

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"My name is Elaine Tan and I am a 1st year undergraduate studying Multimedia computing. I started to volunteer again to share the knowledge I gained from my degree but also because I wanted a chance to work with people from different backgrounds especially working with the elderly as my previous experience only included young people and children.

I managed to secure a volunteering position with a charity called Digital. The project I volunteer for matched 18-25 year olds to over 45s in a one-to-one mentoring relationship. Working as an IT mentor helped me answer some of the questions that I had around my careers and what I wanted to do in the future. In addition, working with so many people and from so many different backgrounds, I feel that I have been able to improve my communication skills significantly.

It was a very special feeling every time I helped someone discover something new in a computer. And thanks to this project and volunteering, I am now a trained mentor; an additional set of skills and knowledge that I feel I can proudly add to my existing ones. The feedback that I had from my mentees was also really useful in increasing my levels of confidence and giving me the extra motivation to go out and do something useful with my time. And whilst I didn't volunteer on one of Volunteering opportunities listed on the Career Development Centre's vacancy database, the support they had offered throughout my volunteering period was really useful and so was the frequent information that they sent me via email.

I am still keen to continue volunteering and would definitely use the Career Development Centre to find a suitable position."

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"I volunteered for the Career Development Centre where I helped out in organising and running various events. It involved promoting the event through leaflets and direct contact with students at my university and welcoming visitors, signing them in, escorting them to the event's room and providing general help with catering."

"The subject that I am currently studying requires a lot of time on the computer; I wanted to do something different where I could do practical things but also gain some work experience. While searching for opportunities I came across a volunteering opportunity that involved helping the Career Development Centre to organise and run employability events. I was immediately interested. Not only was the work varied and interesting but I met people from a variety of backgrounds which made the experience even more enjoyable."

"Through the experience, I feel I have improved on a number of skills that I think will help me do better at my studies and improve my chances at getting paid work. I met employers from both the private sector and the charity sector, had a chance to speak to them and as a result I feel I have a better understanding of how I ought to present and prepare myself when applying for jobs. I really enjoyed myself as I got to do a range of tasks learning a great deal in the process. I also felt that I was greatly supported and that the team were really friendly and helpful."

"Through volunteering I gained many skills, I was able to improve my communication skills, analytical skills and gain problem solving skills. I was also expected to show professional approach in everything that I did. We worked as a team to complete many tasks which among other things involved talking to other volunteers and employers that I did not know before. I have also learnt to use my initiative to complete tasks and to face people."

"The skills that I have developed during my volunteering are absolutely vital when applying for jobs. So much so, that thanks to my volunteering experience, I have now been offered a part time job with one of the employers that I had met whilst volunteering in one of this events."

"Yes, I have learnt many things. An important skill and one that I could apply to any setting including that of my class is Team Work. My course involves a number of group work exercises and I am certain that my experience here will put me in a good stead."

"A great opportunity to stand out in the crowd. Most employers look for experience when recruiting people, experience gained through volunteering is valued highly by employers."

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"I volunteered to help out with the Law School Event, the Volunteering Fair and the Part-Time Job Fair which involved promoting them, managing the inflow and outflow of students on the day  and ushering guests on the day."

"As I have had previous volunteering experience I do have a particular liking to helping out with organising events as it gives one a good chance to network with different individuals from different streams. Also as I have come on a Scholarship to study at the University I needed to complete 20 hours of volunteering as a part of the Scholarship Agreement."

"The experience on the whole was highly informative and fulfilling as I got to learn a lot about the functioning of events here and to compare it with the working styles that prevail in my country of origin, India. Also I got to meet and interact with students and employers alike, many of whom were from different countries. It boosted my confidence to interact and approach individuals, specially during the time I was promoting the events. This was a way to learn the art of inter-personal skills in a practical way."

"Got to learn about the steps that go into organising an event like this and all the angles that need to be looked at before making any decisions."

"Yes it will. The reflection-discussion after the event was very insightful and helped us become aware of the thing that we gained from the event and helped us know more about the areas we need to work upon."

"May be in an indirect way when it came to collating the data about the number of people who turned up and the feedback that the students, visitors and exhibitors gave on the event."

"Just about ensuring that all the 22,000 students are at least aware of the services and events and to ensure that we can host more and more students with every passing year."

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Click on the following link to open a video and listen to Daniel Cano sharing stories from his volunteering experience 

http://cavpod.wmin.ac.uk/~video/department/case/volunteering_cs/index.html

• The opportunities that we currently have on our database are as open to staff as they are to students. However, staff volunteers will have to agree on an arrangement with their respective manager if they are to use their working hours to volunteer.

• The department of Human Resources is working on making volunteering part of its overall staff development strategy which might include flexible working arrangements. We will keep you up-to-date with the developments.

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To ensure that you are kept up-to-date with all the relevant news on volunteering, we have setup a volunteering blog to bring you the latest on the subject and to give you the chance to post your feedback and comments immediately. The most recent blog posts can be seen below:

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Go to the next section: Where to Start