Practical guidance for Schools and Colleges

Employee volunteers are usually extremely keen to engage with schools and colleges and contribute to their local communities. Many schools have built up fruitful and longstanding relationships with their visitors.

Where to start

• Put someone in charge. Someone such as a work-related learning or careers coordinator who works in partnership with a member of the senior leadership team. A single point of contact, will keep the communication simple right from the start.
• Decide what support your school/college needs. Decide which students would benefit most.

Choosing a volunteer

On the Inspiring the Future website schools can view brief details that volunteers have entered about themselves, their jobs, and what they can offer. Private email addresses and phone numbers are not visible to either party.

Making contact and creating an 'activity'

From the Inspiring the Future 'My Matches' page, they can email appropriate volunteers and ask them to get involved in an activity they have coming up. After discussion through the email messaging system, schools create an 'activity' giving a few more details of the event - the date, number of students, ages of students and other useful information. Volunteers can choose to 'accept the event', and once it has taken place schools 'close it', triggering feedback.

The visit

• Ensure the volunteer arrives with time to prepare
• Let EVERYONE know that the visit is happening and what to expect in the session.
• Organise car parking if required
• Ensure there are some questions ready to kick start the Q&A
• Let your volunteer know how the visit went. Through feedback they can develop their communication and presentation style.

Feedback afterwards

Inspiring the Future  asks four or five questions of both volunteers and schools about how the event went. We strongly recommend that this is completed, as it allows us to keep an eye on the quality of volunteers and whether the service is working for both parties. We also use your feedback to report to funders, which will help to keep this service completely free to schools and volunteers.

Visit our FAQs section for more details about the volunteering and registration procoess.

Other useful guidance

Visit the Teachers Guide for advice on how to get started and plan your work with employers.