Recruiting volunteers

Our Civic and Community Engagement team can help you find student volunteers – all bursting with enthusiasm to support you by putting their skills into practice.

We can help you find skilled student volunteers

We are an experienced team who have worked with thousands of third sector organisations, helping them put in place recruitment and management strategies to ensure both they and the volunteer have an excellent experience.

We’re interested in all kinds of opportunities, from event stewards to trustees – for one-off opportunities to long-term volunteering roles. We are especially interested in skilled roles that make the most of what UWE Bristol students have to offer.

Get in touch with the Civic and Community Engagement Team at volunteering@uwe.ac.uk. We’d be delighted to set up a short meeting to discuss any aspect of the recruitment process.

Advertise your volunteering opportunities to UWE Bristol students

You can advertise your volunteering roles on CareerHub, an online vacancy board where students can search for opportunities and create tailored vacancy alerts.

Register on CareerHub

Advertising on CareerHub is quick and easy. Start by registering your organisation on CareerHub.

Once your registration has been approved, you will be able to:

add or remove your volunteering opportunities or events
reach your target audience
create access for additional staff in your organisation
keep your information up to date.

Go to CareerHub

Professional volunteering for creative students

Many UWE Bristol students have excellent creative and design skills that are ideally suited to working on communications and creative projects.

Examples of creative projects

Animation – animating comments from service users/beneficiaries who want to remain anonymous; making short explainer videos.
Illustration – making a bank of positive images of people with disabilities.
Photography and videography – recording a children’s activity day.
Graphic design – creating information boards for a nature reserve.
Video editing – creating a marketing video from clips.
Curation – researching, writing and presenting community wellbeing advice inspired by a museum collection.
Journalism – writing a blog about the impact of a youth charity in a disadvantaged area.
Fine art – illustrating an impact report; creating a mural to narrate your service users’ story for exhibition in a physical space.
Graphic design – creating social media frames to go around photographs and text.
Marketing – writing a marketing strategy for a fundraising campaign.

You don’t need to be an arts organisation to benefit – we can help you to define your idea. Contact us at volunteering@uwe.ac.uk.

Submit your project

Due to high student demand, we are particularly keen to promote high-impact volunteering roles that provide opportunities for UWE Bristol volunteers to fully apply their academic, personal and professional skills and expertise.

To submit your projects briefs, please email volunteering@uwe.ac.uk and quote Professional Volunteering. Please be aware that the deadline for project submission for Term 1 is 31 August 2024 and for Term 2 is 1 December 2024.

"I was involved in initiating a pop up workshop fundraising event with the participants of art + power. I got a lot out of this experience, everyone was very enthusiastic and supportive.

The experience helped to enable me to get a job as a pre-16 student ambassador with UWE Bristol and, upon completing my degree, I will take a job as an activity leader in an international summer school running art workshops. Art + power really helped me to gain valuable knowledge, confidence and experience."

Phoebe, Student volunteer

Phoebe Student volunteer

Student volunteer recruitment and retention tips

Be clear about the details. Tell students where and when they will be needed and how flexible you can be. Give examples so they can see if it will work for them.
Make opportunities short term if possible. Students don't know their workload far in advance, so prefer to commit for two to three months. Offering one-off opportunities can also help to get them on board.
Tell students what training is available and if there is room for progressing to different roles.
Are the roles sociable? Do volunteers have meet ups? Do you want them to encourage their friends to volunteer too? Add this to your profile.
Check in with students every few months. Ask about their academic workload and encourage them to take a short break rather than feeling like they should leave if they can't support you as much as normal.
Ask student volunteers for quotes and photos so that you can share their positive experiences with others through social media.

Volunteering and community projects

We run volunteering projects in partnership with organisations. We're always interested to hear from local charities or not-for-profit organisations who have a need or an idea for a project where UWE Bristol volunteers could help. Contact us at: volunteering@uwe.ac.uk

"We have benefited from student volunteers assisting our IT Tutor on basic computer courses and they have always been polite and respectful to the older people we work with. I hope to continue this relationship with UWE into the future.

It’s a rewarding experience for everyone, especially the service users… All the young students were very kind and wonderful, very pleasant and helpful. It was just lovely and I would say 'yes' to another one."

Janie, NBAC team member

Janie NBAC team member