Youth ambassador Harvey was invited along to meet the team at City Year earlier this month to see how a year-long volunteering placement works.
City Year UK challenges young people to tackle educational inequality through a year of full-time volunteering in schools. You can download and read Harvey’s full thoughts and his insight on the games and activities played throughout the day here.
Harvey spent some time with some of the City Year volunteers, and asking the follwoing
Tell me a little about what you’ve done before City Year and why you chose to take part in the scheme?
One volunteer was on her placement year at university and had chosen to volunteer with City Year rather than doing a paid work placement with an employer. She had been volunteering since age 10 and felt like it was the right option for her, she gained a lot of enjoyment from being able to give back to the community. She highlighted that her experience with City Year over the last few months has helped to shape her and that the experience in her school has helped her to realise that she wants to work with SEN children.
The second volunteer had just level sixth form and didn’t know what he wanted to do at university so he was taking a year out to do the City Year scheme in the hope to find what specific role he wanted to aim for in education as he felt the scheme would help him to apply for the right university course.
There are less young people volunteering today compared to in previous years, why did you choose the scheme over a paid work placement or a part-time job?
Both volunteers emphasised that they had chosen the scheme over a paid work placement or part time job to enable them to make positive changes in society and to gain all the skills that they would learn in a part-time job and more whilst also having a great encouraging impact on lives of young people. They both felt that they had certainly made the right choice and commented on how they felt they had grown in confidence and changed as people since being part of the City Year scheme.
With the City Year scheme are you able to influence what teachers should and shouldn’t do, particularly with SEN children?
Mutually the volunteers agreed that they had both experienced positive and negative interactions with teachers and depending on the teachers age and authority within the school, they could have professional discussions with them on different levels. One volunteer based in a local secondary school highlighted that he had a particularly difficult time trying to speak with a maths teacher who was very ‘figures focused’ after he was more concerned about raising target levels than focusing on what those who were struggling could do to improve individually. The volunteers both agreed that younger teachers were more open to criticism and suggestion and were really invested in building a positive relationship with them whilst others who had been teaching for years didn’t always appreciate the efforts that they made to bring positive change to the schools.
Has City Year helped you to decide what you would like to do in the future?
The volunteers both stressed that the City Year scheme had helped them to realise that they don’t want teaching roles in the future but had helped them to gain an understanding of a position that they would like to work in within a school – both expressed an interest in working with SEN children and were grateful for the opportunities they had gained through the City Year scheme.
How are the volunteers supported through the City Year scheme?
Volunteers were supported in building skills in the following areas:
- developing leadership potential through regular workshops
- corporate engagement through interview practice with local and national employers
- networking events with the wider network of City Year volunteers and local business people
- developing skills like public speaking, problem solving, teamwork, creativity and self-awareness.
The volunteers backed this up and both spoke about how they felt they had developed their skills and grown in confidence over all the areas mentioned.
The volunteers:
• are managed and supported by an onsite Impact Officer, who is part of the City Year staff team.
• receive regular mentoring support from an employee at one of City Year’s corporate partner organisations.
• have one day per week dedicated to your personal and professional development through leadership development Fridays
Do you have a part-time job to support yourselves financially whilst doing the City Year scheme?
One of the volunteers had a part-time job to support them through their year of service with City Year, however, both highlighted that their free-time was very limited due to the intensity of the scheme and therefore it was difficult to find a part-time role that was flexible enough to meet their needs. The volunteers taking part in the City Year ‘Year of Service’ are entitled to the following benefits:
• Living expenses up to £4,400 a year in London and £3,960 in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester
• Reimbursement for any travel expenses you incur because of City Year activities.
• Support with your financial management through training, workshops and online tools.
• The City Year Hardship fund if eligible
Have you had any interaction with employers, do they appreciate the efforts you’re putting into your work with City Year?
The volunteers I spoke to both in the round table discussion and in the larger group when I joined in with an activity said that employers visit them regularly as part of their Friday sessions to give talks and develop their interview schools. All had interacted with employers both through City Year and privately and emphasised that employers were really interested in their valuable work with City Year and told me that employers they had spoken to saw it as a more valuable asset to their CV over a part-time job. This was great to hear as I was worried that many of the volunteers would have experienced issues with employers not recognising the importance of their voluntary work as I have had issues in this area myself.
