Get Ready to take the lead! 

Project Leader and Inspire Group roles are for one academic year, starting in September and ending with a handover in June. Unfortunately we are not able to offer termly leadership roles, and it is important that leaders remain in post for the full year.

All of our volunteers receive training to help them with their specific roles. This includes bespoke training delivered by the volunteering staff team on subjects such as volunteer recruitment and retention, skills development, promotion and more.

Our leaders also get CPD accredited leadership and teamwork training from Mobile Team Challenge, a professional training company that have worked with hundreds of different business, government institutions and charities.

Volunteering can be an excellent way of developing the skills that are key to the modern workforce. In particular our student leader roles will allow you to develop your self-management, with a particular focus on adapting and initiative. You will also be able to develop your social intelligence skills through collaboration and communication.

This will vary from project to project, but during the busier times of year we predict a leadership role occupying 2-4 hours per week. What you do during this time will vary but it could involve planning and delivering sessions, advertising your project on social media or communicating with students or partners. 

A Royal Holloway Volunteering leadership role can make an excellent addition to your CV. As well as showing that you have passion for a cause, including this role can show employers that you have truly made the most of your Royal Holloway, University of London degree and that you have managed your time well while studying. Just because you have not been paid, don’t think the role does not have value on job applications, especially if you want to work in schools, charities, higher education or the health sector.

A leadership role can be a great way of developing a range of employability skills to help you develop as a person. As well as leadership and teamwork, previous volunteers say that our roles have increased their confidence, presentation technique, time management, communication and problem solving skills.

Hopefully not! We aim to recruit 2-4 Project Leaders per project, and Inspire Team Leaders are grouped together in mentoring “inspire” groups. This means that there is always someone to support you with your volunteering project. We also have the Royal Holloway Volunteering staff team at hand who are happy to offer advice and guidance. 

As a way of bringing our whole volunteering team together, we do have some events throughout the course of the year. As well as a Christmas event, often involving ice skating, we have an end of year barbeque that we hold in collaboration with the wider Student Engagement and Sport Department. We also have smaller events throughout the year such as forums and our big celebration event at the end of the year! 

We usually recruit for Project Leaders in February, with an aim for students to start the role the following September. We do sometimes have Project Leader vacancies throughout the year, and these will be advertised through our weekly emails.

As these are volunteer roles these positions are unpaid. We hope that you are able to get a lot out of the role though, including skill development opportunities that you would be unable to find in many paid positions.