Resources

Increasingly in the competitive graduate job market students are looking for ways in which to enhance their skills, knowledge and experience, and volunteering can offer excellent opportunities to achieve this alongside their studies at university. Students may seek to be involved in volunteering which is related to their course or future career aspirations, or simply in order to assist those in their local community.

There is a widely held view that there are substantial benefits to be gained from engagement with volunteering for students, higher education institutions and the communities in which they volunteer. Volunteering may link into institutional policies for widening participation, student retention or satisfaction, teaching and learning, social responsibility or social capital, citizenship and civic engagement, student employability, knowledge exchange, community or employer engagement.

There is a considerable amount of support available for volunteering, see for example:

Volunteering England is a volunteer development agency which works to support and enable volunteering. They have a student volunteering team that works with further and higher education and they also provide an information service on volunteering.

UnLtd is a charity which supports social entrepreneurs who want to change the world for the better. They provide funding, information and support to help make ideas a reality and they also run award schemes, including some in higher education for social entrepreneurship.

Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard for all organisations which involve volunteers in their work. The Standard enables organisations to review their volunteer management, and publicly demonstrate their commitment to volunteering. Their site provides case study examples of volunteering.

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