Volunteering

Promoting volunteering is a direct and visible way in which providers can make an active contribution locally. There are a great number of ways in which learners or staff can be volunteers, and each provider can have different opportunities depending on the local situation. As a useful benchmark, Business in the Community (click here to access their website) believe that effective volunteering means that at least 25% of the organisation should become involved in volunteering activities.

There are a number of effective measures that you can take to kick start volunteering activity amongst staff and students in your organisation:

• Have links with a range of local non governmental organisations in a wide range of areas can help potential volunteers identify an activity that most appeals. These areas could range from environmental projects, disability, mentoring, arts or design, etc.
• Have volunteering days that everyone in the organisation must take within a year.
• Enable learners to act as mentors to younger learners in local Saturday schools for example.
• Get involved in British Trust for Conservation Volunteer (BTCV) (click here to access their website) projects for learners, for example with learning difficulties.

This case study from StudentForce may be of interest to you: CASE STUDY: StudentForce