Become a Volunteer

Volunteering is an incredibly valuable experience, both personally and to those you are helping. Not sure? Take a look at the list below and if any reasons strike a chord, get in touch with us at Active Student:

• Make a difference: Don’t underestimate the impact that you can have on other people within your community; as a volunteer you can make a significant contribution to the delivery of vital services and activities.
• Explore your career path: Volunteering can help you to decipher which careers you are more or less well suited to since there are a huge variety of volunteering opportunities available.
• Improve your employment prospects: Develop key skills, gain valuable work experience and show initiative and commitment, all of which will set you apart from other candidates.
• Get degree-related work experience: Put the skills and knowledge you have learnt at university into practice in a real-life workplace environment
• Update your references: References are a key part of any application process and a good recent reference obtained from volunteering can help boost your prospects.
• Free induction/training: Access to appropriate free induction/training to enable you to undertake a volunteer role competently and confidently is a key part of all volunteer roles and will provide you with a valuable boost to your skills and understanding.
• A new challenge: Step out of your comfort zone but take on a manageable challenge by choosing a role that fits with your availability and interests and into a volunteer role that has been checked to ensure it is safe and supported.
• Make friends, network and engage with your local community: Meeting people beyond the campus provides you with the opportunity to develop new friendships, to work alongside a community of people who may share similar goals to you, to build up contacts within an area of work that may be useful for future employment, and to gain a deeper understanding of the wider community
• Volunteering makes you feel good!: There is nothing more fulfilling then carrying out work that makes a positive impact on others. A few hours a week of volunteering, even engaging in a one-off volunteer role can make a world of difference to the people and services that need it. And that feeling of knowing you have done some good is definitely a major benefit in itself.

To explore volunteering opportunities and find out how you can volunteer through Active Student:  

• Website: brighton.ac.uk/careers/volunteering
• Tel: 01273 644145
• E-mail: volunteering@brighton.ac.uk
• To search the full list of volunteer roles: www.brighton.ac.uk/careers/resources