Provider FAQs

 

For further information please also see our Provider How to Guide

 

I wish to recruit University of Chester students as volunteers, what should I do first? 

Please register on our website as a Volunteer Provider here, where you will also be able to view our Terms and Conditions. Once you have registered, a member of the team will review your registration, and if all the details are in place your registration will be activated and you can start adding volunteer roles to recruit volunteers.

Please see our How to guide for more information on adding volunteer roles to the website.

 

We are a profit-making organisation, can we still recruit volunteers? 

We can only advertise volunteer opportunities for community, charitable and other not-for profit organisations including Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs) and community interest companies (CICs). If you are a profit making organisation and you have paid roles available, please contact our Careers team if you wish to recruit students for these roles via careers@chester.ac.uk.

 

Can we advertise an internship? 

We are only able to advertise internships with charitable organisations. We do ask, however, that you consider the availability of our students and the time available to them (we encourage our students to undertake no more than 16 hours of volunteering per week). For this reason, internships during term time will not be advertised.
 

 

Our organisation has more than one volunteering opportunity, how do we advertise this?

If you wish to advertise more than one role you can add these as multiple activities on your provider profile.
 

 

We sometimes have ‘one off’ opportunities, can you advertise these? 

Yes! Please put these as an activity on the website as this will then make it visible to volunteers. If you could also email us details of the date, time, location and volunteer role description for your event (then we can also advertise them on our social media pages).

We also compile specific emails at Christmas and Summer to advertise one-off opportunities - if you are a registered provider on our website you should receive our emails regarding this.

Don't forget!: We also invite our providers to facilitate activities for the 'Give a Go' initative - if you have an idea for this then we would love to hear from you!
 

 

I have forgotten my password/my password isn't working, what should I do? 

 

(IF YOU HAVE FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD, NO WORRIES JUST VISIT THE LOG-IN PAGE FOR AN EMAIL LINK TO RESET THIS.

 

How will our volunteering opportunities be promoted? 

By registering as a provider and then uploading your specific activities to the website student volunteers will be able to search and apply to volunteer for your opportunities.

Additionally, we also offer volunteer appointments for students to meet with a member of the team to explore the volunteer opportunities that are available .

We also advertise events and one-off opportunities on our social media pages, as well as a regular #FeaturedFriday where we advertise a specific volunteer opportunity, this can be long term or a one-off opportunity. Please get in touch if you would like to be featured.
 

 

We have promotional materials and further information about our opportunities, can we send you copies?

Unfortunately, we don’t have a specific space for leaflets and posters; however, we are happy to share information on social media.
 

 

Our roles require volunteers to have specific skills and experience, how can we ensure we recruit students who meet these requirements? 

When you add an activity to the website there is the option to indicate the type of volunteering you are offering and to also indicate the specific skills you require or can be developed.

We cannot set opportunities to only be visible to certain groups of students, so if you do require certain experience/skills ensure that you make this clear in the role description.

We can also send information on your opportunity to specific academic departments, please get in touch if this is something you would like assistance with.
 

 

Our role require volunteers to complete DBS checks, is this something you can assist with? 

If an activity involves a volunteer completing regulated activity, and therefore requires a DBS check, we expect the organisation to administer the check free of charge for the volunteer. We do not usually complete DBS checks on behalf of an organisation as, legally, we would be unable to share the results with you. You can indicate on your activity listing whether the role will require a DBS check.

Please note, an International student may also be required to apply for a Certificate of Good Conduct towards their DBS check.
 

 

Our role requires a volunteer to provide references, are there any issues with this? 

If your role requires at least two references, please be aware that some students may struggle to provide employer references. You may need to have some flexibility on the type of references you require to support the student to volunteer with your organisation. For example, could you accept a reference from their Personal Academic Tutor (PAT) or another member of university staff that knows the student?
 

 

What should we do if there is a problem with a volunteer, or we find that they are not suitable at application stage? 

As we are unable to manage who applies for your opportunities via the website, we would recommend having a recruitment process in place (even if this is very informal) so that you are able to check their suitability for a role.

If, after following your usual procedure for dealing with issues with volunteers, you are still experiencing problems or have concerns about one of your student volunteers, please contact us and we will help to resolve this where possible.
 

 

We have received an email that a student is interested in an activity we have advertised, what should I do next?

The procedure is highlighted in our How to Guide  but if you have any questions please contact us.

We would recommend contacting the student within 10 working days where possible to ensure they feel engaged in the process. Regular communication is key in this. If you have contacted them and they have not responded, please let us know and we will contact them to check their interest in the role.
 

 

What should we do if we have had low uptake for the activities we have listed? 

Although we will assist as much as possible with the promotion of your volunteer opportunities, we are, unfortunately, unable to guarantee that students will apply to the activities that you advertise on the website. If you are struggling to recruit student volunteers please let us know and we will happily look at further ways to promote your volunteer opportunities.

Consider whether you have included enough information in the activity listing to help students decide whether it is the right opportunity for them. To help with this, please see our Tips for getting the most from your activity listing for more information on writing a good advert and engaging students with your volunteer roles.
 

 

How will you use our data? 

Please see our Privacy notice here for information on how we store and process your organisation's data.

 

Still got a question which wasn’t answered? Please email us on volunteering@chester.ac.uk and we will be happy to help.