Advertising Volunteering Roles for Students

Would your organisation benefit from the skills and knowledge our students gain whilst at university?

In 2022/23, over 3,400 students and graduates of the University of Portsmouth took on volunteering roles in the local community and on campus.

They found their roles through the Careers and Employability Service's Volunteering Team, the Sports and Recreation Department, the Students' Union and through work-based learning modules on their courses. 140,878 volunteering hours were contributed to the local community across the course of the year.

Our social work students have supported local families through home-visits, our law students have given restorative support through local mediation services and our computer science students have delivered free coding sessions to local primary school children. Students also did volunteer roles in areas including marketing, website design, event management, finance, criminology and adult social care.

Find out how students and graduates can benefit your organisation with their knowledge and skills. Contact our Volunteering Team to raise awareness of your organisation and the volunteering opportunities you offer.

Benefits of recruiting a student volunteer

When you advertise a volunteering opportunity with us, you'll advertise to over 28,000 students studying over 400 disciplines. When you recruit a volunteer through us, you'll recruit volunteers who are:

Specialised in their chosen area with an academic understanding of their chosen subject
Culturally diverse – Portsmouth is home to over 5,000 international and EU students from around 160 countries
Innovative and able to bring a new perspective to your organisation and generate creative solutions
Informed and passionate about ethical practice, social justice issues, respect, sustainability and the community
Flexible – they can volunteer in a range of environments while being aware, adaptable and realistic in expectations
Eager to learn and looking for opportunities to apply their academic knowledge and develop their employability
Intellectually curious and up-to-date with latest technologies and skills

Recruiting student and graduate volunteers

If you represent a charity or not-for-profit, our Volunteering Team can help you promote voluntary roles that require regular commitment. We can promote your opportunities to students across the University, to a selection of students studying relevant degrees and to graduates who've completed their studies within the last five years. We can also promote one-off opportunities or roles that require a short-term commitment and minimal training.

Advertising volunteering opportunities

We'll advertise your volunteering opportunities for free in the following ways:

on MyCareer, our online jobs board
in our paper-based volunteering bank
via social media
through outreach on campus
by including your advertised roles in subject-specific talks to students in relevant departments

Work Experience Festival

You can advertise volunteering vacancies to hundreds of students and graduates by exhibiting at our annual Volunteering Fair. It takes place every October, with space for 40 organisations to attend. Last year’s fair had 330 attendees and saw 194 applications of interest in volunteering for our organisations.

Contact our Volunteering Team at volunteering@port.ac.uk to book your spot at our next fair

Volunteer recruitment support

We can support you during the volunteer recruitment process by meeting with you to:

discuss your volunteer requirements in detail
outline the services we can provide for you

We'll help you create tailored role descriptions, advertise your opportunities across the University and raise awareness of your organisation on campus. We'll review applications in the initial recruitment stages and send approved applications to you. We'll also give you support for short-term placement applications and guidance around the recruitment of students on Student Route or Tier 4 visas.

Each year we check in with our partners to see how things have gone, what support they need for the next academic year and answer any queries they may have.

Third-sector organisations we've supported include:

charities
the NHS
local schools
the police and prison service
community groups
theatres
galleries
social enterprises

Find out more

To make sure you get the best experience when recruiting our students and graduates as volunteers, we have some requirements:

You need to be a registered not-for-profit such as a charity, social enterprise, community interest company (CIC), community group, local authority, school or part of the NHS
You're looking to recruit for long-term opportunities which enable students and graduates to develop their employability skills
You need volunteers for one-off opportunities or short-term projects which will introduce students to what volunteering can offer
We expect you to have volunteer induction and training in place for new volunteers
We need a point of contact responsible for volunteer support
Ideally, your opportunity needs to be local to Portsmouth and surrounding areas – we do have opportunities in nearby areas including Winchester, Petersfield and Southampton but we assess this on a case by case basis
We expect volunteers to be reimbursed for travel expenses where possible
Currently, we only promote UK based volunteering and do not advertise for overseas opportunities
You'll need to complete an insurance and health and safety checklists, and we might visit your organisation on location

Please note, we don't advertise for private profitable companies due to NMW legislation.

Advertise a volunteering opportunity

Ready to recruit? Complete our online enquiry form or contact our Volunteering Team directly and we'll work with you to advertise your roles to our students.

Telephone: +44 (0)2392 842 684

Email: volunteering@port.ac.uk

Complete form now