Westminster Working Cultures is an intensive employability programme for students at the University of Westminster, utilising the volunteer support of our global network of alumni and partners. Established in 2017, we have supported over 1500 students and involved 500 volunteers through this distinctive programme which won a CASE Gold Award in 2023. This session will cover how we’ve created an exceptional volunteer experience for all involved, including opportunities and challenges we’ve faced along the way.

Unlock the potential of your volunteer program with strategic registration forms. This session delves into crafting forms that not only collect essential data but also reveal volunteers' interests and skills including their capacity to support underrepresented groups. Learn how to design clear and concise questions, utilise diverse fields, and encourage meaningful responses. Learn how to work in partnership with your data teams to build a resource that works to achieve your strategic goals.

We are so reliant on the goodwill of our supporters; we need our volunteers to know how much we value them. We will present some of our stewardship quick wins, facilitate sharing what we’re all doing and come up with some new ideas together. Be prepared for some creative thinking!

Join us to hear how the University of St Andrews fosters a strong sense of mentorship and support amongst its student and alumni community through Coffee Connect. Our session will outline how our alumni team collaborated with our careers centre to create our bespoke mentoring programme, Coffee Connect, offering both alumni to student and alumni to alumni mentoring.

How can you support lifelong learning across the education system? Governors for Schools will discuss how they build effective partnerships and school governance initiatives. They will cover key reporting metrics, CPD opportunities, and how such initiatives play an important role in addressing inequalities and improving access to higher education.

Who can tell the story of your institution better than those who’ve experienced it themselves? Alumni are an ever-expanding pool of real-life success stories, who, if you have a solid plan in place, can inspire a rich tapestry of content to meet a wide variety of objectives. Whether it’s alumni engagement, institutional reputation, student recruitment, or even prospective donors, alumni storytelling is sitting right there in your back pocket. We’re going to show you how you can take full advantage that. In this session, we aim to demonstrate the value of alumni volunteers in your digital content strategy, with a particular focus on videography. We will explore practical tips for building a library of engaging content for your website, email, and social media channels using a case study of Glasgow’s ‘Alumni Spotlight Series’. The session will include insights on effective formats for storytelling, sourcing the right volunteers, the value for both you and alumni, tips for consistency and strategy, the relationship management, the best kit for portable and budget-friendly filming and editing, and the top tips we’ve gained so you don’t make the same mistakes we did!