Welcome to the LIFT OFF Volunteer team
Welcome to the LIFT OFF Volunteer team! We are a small but mighty bunch who are dedicated to inspiring the next generation of Higher Education students.
Higher Education or HE is any course rated SCQF Level 7 or above, so starting at HNC or 1st year of University.
Our student volunteers are vital to the work we do at LIFT OFF. You will have the opportunity to support our experiential events and in school programme. This will not only count towards your volunteering hours but will also allow you to gain valuable experience, develop your skills & inspire the young people we work with!
The sections below aim to give you a selection of tools to use when you volunteer with us. If you have any questions, or would like more specific support please contact the volunteer coordinator.
We are a widening access initiative that supports young people from local secondary schools into Higher Education; that’s any course from a HNC to a Degree. We work with S3 – S6 pupils throughout Fife, Dundee and Angus.
We have a limited number of core pupil places per school (roughly between 15-30) and we ask Guidance Teachers to help select pupils to join the programme. The selection criteria is based on many factors but our main priority is that pupils have the ability to transition into Higher Education after school. Many of the young people we work with may lack the confidence or inspiration to go on to Higher Education.
Pupils who register with the LIFT OFF programme can engage in activities in S4, S5 & S6.
We also offer Tier 1 schools additional sessions with S3 pupils who have not yet joined the LIFT OFF Programme.
While we want to engage you as a volunteer as often as we can, some engagements are not suitable to allow volunteering, please check the volunteer hub for activities to get involved in now!
LIFT OFF is currently undergoing a programme expansion to extend our reach. However we currently are engaged in the following schools:
LIFT OFF has provided support to its schools on a tiered basis with the level of support offered to each school being dependent on its tier. The allocation of schools to tiers is based on several measures including progression rate data and attainment figures.
Tier 1 schools receive the most support from LIFT OFF.
LIFT OFF Team
Here is the contact information for key members of the LIFT OFF Team, if you would like more info about us; visit About Us page.
Helen King
Volunteer Co-ordinator & First Aider
volunteeringwithliftoff@abertay.ac.uk
07971 361735
Mel Rookes
Child Protection Lead
m.rookes@abertay.ac.uk
07854 681884
First Aiders
Shauntelle Islam
07854 681760
Mel Rookes
07854 681884
Shaunie Anderson
07854 681 874
Your Motivations
Volunteering is a great outlet, regardless of where you are in your education or career. Volunteering can provide skills development, new experiences and hopefully fun! Generally speaking, the more you put into volunteering the more you can get back from it.
Below are some motivations you might have for volunteering with LIFT OFF (or elsewhere), consider what is important to you. Note this down and discuss it with the volunteer coordinator at your next meeting. We want to make volunteering a valuable experience for you!
- I want to help others
- I want to gain hands on experience
- I want to gain experience working in Higher Education or Widening Access sector
- I have an interest in community service
- Volunteering gives me a sense of achievement
- I've been through the LIFT OFF programme and want to support young people like me
- I want to work with young people in the future
Communicating with Young people
Communicating with young people can be daunting, especially if you have never done it before. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to be experts on your first session. It takes time to develop these skills!
- Be confident, assertive, friendly & approachable
- The only behaviour you can control is your own; lead by example.
- Thank pupils who behave well or make positive contributions
- Model behaviours and communication style you expect from the young people. For example be assertive but don't shout, don't get drawn into arguments (teenagers can be very adept at contriving an argument)
- Phrase instructions and requests positively. Tell the young person what you need them to do, be specific and have a reason for each instruction.
- Be aware some teenagers might sigh, pull faces, slouch or appear hostile. Don't take this personally! Try to ignore these behaviours and if they become disruptive, ask a staff member or class teacher for assistance.
- Plan what you are going to say ahead of time to support your delivery.
In the classroom...
Introduce yourself and what you are doing there
“Good afternoon everyone. My name is… I am a student volunteer with LIFT OFF. I study…”
Keep the pupils on task by issuing clear instructions
“I need you to… using materials X, Y & Z, then listen to me. Thank you.”
Keep the pupils on task by issuing clear instructions
“Thank you for your contributions during the last task. Now I need you to listen carefully to this additional information. Bearing that in mind, let’s discuss…”
“We have had some very good discussion about… this afternoon. I hope you have enjoyed today and learnt a bit more about… The bell will go in a few minutes, so please pack up your things and return materials to the front. Thanks for taking part today!”
Situations...
Good afternoon everyone. There are seats over here if there is no more space at the back, let's get ready quickly
Robert & Ayesha, if you are stuck please put your hand up to ask me
Callum, could you help me and pick up those papers and put them on this desk
Ian I can see you are annoyed but I need you to focus. Do you need any help with the task?
Active Listening
Ask Open Questions
By using questions like this you can stimulate conversation by getting the younger person to fill out their answer and you will find out more about them as a result.
Clarify
Sometimes people can gloss over important information. Questions like "Tell me more about that" will get them to clarify the point for you.
Summarise
Once the young person has finished talking, paraphrase what they said and repeat it back to them. This shows you have been listening and understand what they are communicating
Words of encouragement
Encouraging the young person to continue while they are talking is often the best thing to do. "Go on" "I see" "Absolutely" can give the young person some additional confidence to engage.
Reflect
Repeating back a word of a phrase can encourage people to go on and expand their thoughts
React
Once the young person has finished, you need to show that you have been listening by reacting. Try to keep your reaction positive and relevant to them.
Engagement Techniques
Young people can be difficult to engage with! Sometimes they can be disinterested, distracted or just struggling to get going during events! This is totally normal and not your fault- even the most experienced in the LIFT OFF team can struggle to engage with kids sometimes.
Below are a few examples of techniques we use to get the young people more motivated to engage in sessions. If you find engagement difficult, why not try these techniques out:
Puzzled Listener
Pause - Prompt- Praise
Think - Pair - Share
- Pose questions to the whole group or class
- Pair up the pupils into smaller groups
- Allow them some time to discuss
- Bring the conversation back to the whole class and ask each group to contribute their thoughts
Icebreakers
Regardless of age, everyone can feel anxious or nervous when speaking to new people- consider situations where you have felt nervous and bear this in mind when working with young people!
In our experience, we have found icebreaker activities defuse the tension when working with young people and help’s establish connections between you, as a student volunteer, and their peers.
Below are some good practice and example icebreakers.
Good Practice
Icebreakers should cover the three following things
- Introductions- remember to introduce yourself including your name, what you do at H.E, where you are from, what you are going to do.
- Remove any awkwardness- it often helps to keep the icebreaker silly and casual to get over any nerves.
- Learning pupils’ names- This is key to allow you to talk directly to them & it shows that you are taking an active interest in what the pupil has to say which supports engagement.
Quick Line-up
Split the class into two groups (aim for groups of 8-10)
Have the pupils line up in order of…
Fastest group to line up, wins the challenge!
Find Three
- Split group into small teams (Try to avoid friends sticking together)
- Participants need to say one fact about themselves
- The aim is to try to find 3 things that the group all have in common
- The more unusual the 3 things the better!
Resources
SCQF Leveling framework
Reference request
Social Media Working Policy
Pupil Selection Criteria
Expenses
Success Stories
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