This month we catch up with Mark Grayling, who has recently been appointed as Chair of the Student Volunteering Advisory Group.
The role of the advisory group is to influence and inform the strategic development of student volunteering at a local, sub-regional, regional and national level for the benefit of student volunteers and their local communities.
Mark has an established career in the UK students’ union movement; he is currently chair of AMSU and is the general manager of Nottingham Student Union.
Mark will take over from Graham Allcott, the current Chair, at the fourth SVAG meeting in June.
This group was set up following the merger of Student Volunteering England and Volunteering England to maintain the involvement of stakeholders in the work of the Student Volunteering team.
What are your priorities as you take up the post of Chair?
To help VE build on the distinct features of student volunteering and help the organisation provide the best support for projects and volunteers based in unions, colleges and universities.
How can students make a big difference through volunteering?
In many ways, the contribution students make is no different from other volunteers.
However, for the cohort of students who have moved to a particular town or city in order to attend their university or college then volunteering can be an important contribution in their new community alongside the positive economic impact they will bring with them.
What kind of opportunities exist to develop and sustain student volunteering projects in universities and colleges?
Students’ Unions provide tens, even hundreds, of thousands of opportunities to volunteer and self organise and this provides the context for involvement in community volunteering projects.
Volunteering is a major part of the way of life for students who engage with their Union.
What Unions, and in some cases their partner universities or colleges, are good at is reconciling the competing demands on students and creating volunteering opportunities that work with the student life cycle as they progress on a course of study.
How can colleges and universities attract funding to offer their students quality volunteering opportunities?
Chasing grants is new territory for many in both the HE sector and in Students’ Unions but one of the legacies of the Active Community Fund is the ability to successfully apply for funds, to work in partnership and to match activity to funding criteria is improving.
It’s perhaps those last two items that are the key to attracting financial support.
Some sceptics would say volunteering while you are a student is all about having something to put on your CV in order to get a good job later - what do you think of this statement?
I’ve always been quite comfortable with a little bit of enlightened self-interest; it’s a fair-enough place to start.
It’s, also, surely a good thing that employers want more than just qualifications and there’s far more to the student experience and breadth of education on offer than just formal study and assessment.
However, there are easier ways to enhance your CV and volunteering always brings a different type of satisfaction once undertaken!
What do you think are the key issues facing students who want to volunteer?
Each student will, of course, have different circumstances but the common ground is likely to be around balancing time spent on study, paid work, leisure and/or sport with volunteering and a social life and each of these will be more, or less, important at different times.
There’s lots of competing priorities; but that’s life!
