Ways we can support you

The Volunteering and Awards Team at the University can help you recruit students to support community initiatives. All our services are free. However in return we ask that you keep your records on Volunteer Hub up to date including updating the student hours. This is really important, not just for students gaining recognition, but also for the University to monitor the student volunteering taking place.

Volunteer Hub

You can easily promote your organisation and volunteering opportunities with us via our Volunteer Hub free of charge. When you register on the Volunteer Hub you will have the opportunity to:

  • Advertise your volunteering roles to our students
  • Attend our Volunteer & Social Justice Fair, giving you the opportunity to meet students face-to-face
  • Receive our e-newsletter to keep you up to date with all our news and the support and services that we can offer you.

Download our Guide to to follow our step by step instructions to register on the Volunteer Hub.

Volunteer Days

Volunteer Days are one-off volunteering events in partnership with community organisations where we can provide student groups to volunteer on an activity that benefits the wider community. These usually last a day or half a day. We can also organise Volunteer Days to last over a few days.

Volunteer Days have included:

  • Tree planting
  • Helping create community gardens
  • Delivering cultural activities in schools.

We are always looking out for new and exciting Volunteer Days to offer to our students, so if you have a job that needs lots of pairs of hands over a short period of time, please contact us.

Volunteer Projects

These are similar to Volunteer Days but run for around three to six weeks and involve some planning and preparation by the student volunteers.

Throughout the lifetime of the project, the student volunteers are supported by a member of the Volunteering and Awards Team and sometimes by a member of the host organisation.

Previous examples of Volunteer Projects that students have participated in and led on include:

  • Volunteering to help organise a community event on behalf of Ancoats Dispensary Trust
  • Designing and painting a mural in a school garden
  • Developing an awareness raising campaign on behalf of the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority to encourage students living off-campus to recycle more.

If you have any ideas about a Volunteer Project that you would like to offer, please contact us.

Community Course Projects

We source community based learning projects as part of the Consultancy Project Module, which is available to final year BSc Management students from the Alliance Manchester Business School.

This is a 40 credit module in which a group of four to six undergraduate students will work on this project, which will proceed in October and be completed by the following May.

The projects sourced for the Consultancy Project module include business consultancy, market research or marketing & PR projects.

For all projects, they must:

  • Be suitable for a team of students to work together
  • Have clear outcomes identified at the start
  • Be challenging, but achievable
  • Be based within relatively easy travelling distance for the students (though students do not need to be based at your premises)
  • Be a distinct piece of work that the students can project manage and lead on, and not part of an ongoing project.

The projects that are sourced are different to volunteering as the students are academically assessed.