How to Volunteer

If you are interested in getting involved keep in touch! 

EmployAgility@ucc.ie

In some cases yes, often this is an informal chat. The organisation posting the opportunity want to get to know you and see where your interests lie. Sometimes they might assign you a different task if you both decide that would be more beneficial.

Employers seek skilled, well rounded students. The Award represents your commitment to something further than your studies. By volunteering on or off campus we recognise the learning that can come from outside the classroom and so do future employers. On your CV it is important to refer to the Award as an achievement.

Employers seek employees with experience. Volunteering can offer a whole range of experiences that employers seek. Fundraising, raising awareness, retail experience, homework clubs, youth groups, etc. all illustrate different qualities of experience. Most importantly you have demonstrated experience of working with people and active communication skills.

If, for whatever reason, you become unhappy, are not enjoying the experience or suddenly find you no longer have the time to commit to it,

• you should communicate this to the organisation you are volunteering with to resolve the situation or exit from the volunteering role.
• you can raise the issue with your local HEI Administrator. Their contact details are available on our About - Contact Us page and are always there to chat about volunteering.
• The national Volunteer Charter is a great guide to what to expect in the volunteer projects. It outlines that there is open communication.

Volunteering overseas, abroad in a different country is international volunteering. You can make a huge impact volunteering locally in Ireland and this can be hugely positive for international communities.

Explore our Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) impact through local volunteering in Ireland. 

If you decide to travel, International Volunteering can be:

• Short term (2 weeks - 3 months)
• Medium term (3-6 months)
• Long term (1 - 2 years)

Research carefully about who to travel with in order to be a mindful volunteer.

Sending organisations may be -

• Non-Profit : Charities, NGOs, Government Organisations or Programmes
• For Profit : Travel Companies, Adventure Companies

The Comhlámh’s Code of Good Practice for Volunteer Sending Agencies, is the standard for Ireland's international volunteering projects. We highly recommend that you volunteer with organisations that are compliant with this national standard.

Do Not volunteer with Orphanages.

• Here is the Irish national guidance on why it is important to inform yourself of the ban on orphanage volunteering: National Guidance

Check out our StudentVolunteer.ie Guide:

StudentVolunteer.ie does not provide training or Garda vetting to student volunteers. It is up to each individual organisation to ensure that volunteers meet the vetting needs of their organisation.

Some organisations require volunteers to undergo reference checks or police checks in line with current legislation. If they require this, they will notify you. Garda vetting means that your history is checked by the Garda Vetting Bureau to ensure that you will be a suitable candidate for working with vulnerable people such as children and the elderly.

An organisation will carry out this paperwork with you at your interview. You do not need this paperwork complete when you first apply to volunteer. 

1 - Make your application/expression of interest in volunteering via the sign up process at StudentVolunteer.ie

2- Communicate with the organisation about the Garda Vetting process at your interview

The organisation will inform you of the process. Police checks/Garda Vetting can take some time, so where possible consider getting in touch with organisations ahead of the time to give yourself extra lead in time. A police check is carried out at no cost to the volunteer.

In some circumstances organisations might want to ensure that your results are returned before you can volunteer with them, but you will be advised about this should this situation arise.

Volunteer Involving Organisations are welcome to join us by creating an account and posting a volunteer role for students to see in order to:

• gain a new pool of energised and focused volunteers
• share their mission and work with future potential donors, staff and volunteers as students will go on to share what the learn about your impact
• connect with higher education staff and opportunities with higher education including curriculum, research and knowledge exchange

Most importantly we respect our partner organisations to work collaboratively with us to ensure the integrity of StudentVolunteer.ie and to provide a positive experience for the student. This can be achieved with these guidelines

• The student volunteer follows a volunteer role description as opposed to a job description.
• The student volunteer is provided with appropriate training by the partner organisation to carry out any tasks assigned to them.
• The student volunteer contributes to the meaningful work of the partner organisation.
• The student volunteer is supervised by the partner organisation or offered support as they require it.
• When the partner organisation is satisfied the student volunteer has met the criteria for the volunteer award, the partner organisation signs off on the student’s application for the Studentvolunteer.ie Certificate.
• As a partner host organisation of student volunteers that you adhere to the StudentVolunteer.ie terms and conditions, including policies and support for Garda Vetting and insurance. 

We recommend the wonderful national guidelines, The Volunteer Charter, available to help guide and support volunteer engagement. 

We accept opportunities from community groups, non-profit organisations and NGOs with a CHY number for volunteering positions only.

Yes, we do allow internships on our site however they must strictly be 'part-time' internships and expected to be carried out on a voluntary basis by the student. You can cover travel/ lunch expenses but the volunteering expected to be done should not exceed a 15 hour per week maximum.  A student should be able to carry out the internship in line with a full degree programme.

StudentVolunteer.ie does not screen or select volunteers for you, you are responsible for this process. We will try to guide or steer potential volunteers to roles we think will suit both themselves and the organisation, but we cannot control who applies. We cannot guarantee to refer any volunteers, however, we continue to actively promote all vacant roles. Volunteer roles cannot replace paid positions.

StudentVolunteer.ie cannot supply organisations with groups of volunteers, but our system allows you to recruit multiple volunteers for the opportunities you post.

Yes, all third level higher education institutions are welcome to join our national collaborative programme at StudentVolunteer.ie! Please contact us through our Programme Manager, Dr Lorraine Tansey, lorraine.tansey@ul.ie for further details.

HEI Members of StudentVolunteer.ie avail of the following:

• Online management tool to match your students with community.
• Connect with community organisations to develop your partnership work.
• Be part of a shared network, our Community of Practice, for conferences, workshops and support to enhance your student volunteering experiences.
• Encourages good practice and building capacity to support the management of volunteering opportunities and data to provide evidence on the quantity and quality of student volunteering activity.

Student Volunteer Ireland is our national network of partner HEIs driven to enable and develop student volunteering. 

We manage:

• our technical platform StudentVolunteer.ie
• our online Digital Badge, The Enabling Student Volunteering open badge at National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
• our grants programme for student volunteering programmes
• our Community of Practice for practitioners growing and developing their volunteering programmes
• our national policy influence and international scholarly research impact.

To help us investigate and solve technical problems speedily, please outline the malfunction clearly and include the following information:

1) Which browser you are using - try an incognito website page

2) A screenshot of your screen before you encounter the problem and a screenshot of the error message

3) Your username or organisation name

Please email this information to lorraine@studentvolunteer.ie 

If you would no longer like to be on the StudentVolunteer.ie system and would like to be removed please contact us with your account details and they will remove your account from the system. Alternatively when you are logged in, you can click delete in your profile and you will have deleted your account.