Accredited Awards

Volunteering can make a huge difference to your life and it's down to you to make the most of it! In today's world you need to show that you are more than the sum of your paper qualifications. You need to show future employers that you have initiative and can communicate and solve problems outside of the academic world.

SCA can offer you three schemes that give you recognition for your volunteering.

V Awards: V thank you, V 50 hours, V Impact

V awards are the nationally recognised awards that recognise the volunteering you have done. Fill out a log sheet and send it back to me each month at rachel.miller@bristol.ac.uk. At the end of the year you will receive a certificate from V Inspired, the Youth Volunteering Organisation.

Bristol PLuS Award

The PLuS (Professional and Life Skills) Awards are means to recognise and reward University of Bristol students who have gained significant professional and life skills through involvement in extra-curricular events and activities.

It has long been established that employers, in addition to higher level qualifications, look for 'transferable' skills gained outside of a degree. At Bristol there is a wealth of opportunities for picking up transferable and professional skills and thus gain 'the edge' when applying for graduate jobs. By completing a PLuS Award you will gain an essential addition to your CV.

Community Work Experience Award

This scheme is another means of recognising your work, but takes you several steps further than MV accreditation and enables you to identify and evaluate the skills you have gained. You need to attend an Induction session ran with the Careers Service including current Graduate Skills information and two review sessions with the CWEA Mentor, Rachel Miller. An easy to use Reflective Log is provided to guide you through the process and there is ongoing support available. The award takes around 10 hours to complete on top of the hours you spend volunteering. It is delivered in partnership with the Career Advisory Service, who offer an equivalent award for paid work experience. It is endorsed by Student Volunteering England and the University of Bristol Union, and is an asset to your CV! Project Co-ordinators and members of the SCA Exec are strongly advised to complete the CWEA, but it is available to all volunteers who fancy it!

You can register your interest in the CWEA on the SCA application form and Induction sessions will be held in October and November, see the Training programme for dates.

In Partnership with the Careers Advisory Service

Certificate in Community Volunteering

This is an externally organised award, based on reflecting on the skills you gain through volunteering, similar to the CWEA. This is a level 2 award, and is run through the City of Bristol College, it is thought to be worth 2 GCSE’s at Grade B. Units include Preparing to Volunteer, Skills for Self-Management, Dealing with Meetings, Working to Good Practice Standards and Understanding Needs, Issues & Responses. You can take between two months and an academic year to complete the award.

Visit the CCV website for more information.

To sign up or find out more about any of these schemes e-mail rachel.miller@bristol.ac.uk