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Hear from recent UCL graduates and experienced professionals working in the Charity and NGO sectors about their career to date and gain top tips on how to get a foot in the door.
From volunteering to internships, gaining experience can give you the edge when applying for graduate roles.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
charity, people, organisation, role, programme, volunteer, support, opportunity, ucl, volunteering, work, campaigns, uk, internship, called, bit, paid, experience, sector
SPEAKERS
Jo Budd, Amy Lourenco, Adam Dyster, Emily Niner, Paola Hanks, Hannah Taaffe, Fiona Tan, Sabina Siddiqui
Jo Budd 00:06
sHello there everyone. My name is Jo Budd and I'm a careers consultant here at UCL careers. This video brings you a panel discussion on ways to get into the charities and NGO sector as part of our charities and NGOs themed week. This discussion will focus on the types of skills and experiences that are currently in demand within the sector, the recruitment processes that you're likely to encounter, tips on creating applications and the types of roles that are available to you as well. So let's get into it.
Amy Lourenco 00:37
Hi, everyone. I'm Amy lourenco, one of the senior careers consultants with UCL careers. And I'm delighted to host this event today getting into charities and NGOs, which is part of our charities and NGOs themed week. The structure of the event today will be as follows, I will ask each of our panellists to introduce themselves, and say a bit about their journey into charities and NGOs. And then to explain a bit about their career history. After we've heard from each of our panellists, we will then move to a q&a and you can post your questions in the q&a box. And you can also like them, so I will ask the most popular questions. We have a fabulous range of case studies also on our themed week website. So I'd encourage you to have a look at the case study videos we have published there. So without further ado, I'll pass over to Adam. And big thank you to all our panellists for being available today
Adam Dyster 01:41
To support the kind of trust work that might be talking to members of parliament about what we're doing in their area. So it might be a local property that's opening or closing. But I also support the charity to cause as well. So the charity really cares about the environment. But there's only so much we can do on our own land. So it might be working with members of parliament and other charities to change the law to improve action on climate change or biodiversity on cultural heritage. So I think it has really two roles. I think the exciting thing about my role at the moment is I'm very much in the hot seat, any kind of national news, you see I'm following a little bit and I get to go into Westminster, and sort of shake hands and sort of in normal times, and shake hands with politicians and MPs, and talk to them about the issues that my charity cares about, which is really exciting. And I've got next to my desk, actual pieces of legislation, pieces of pieces of laws that I've written sentences in that, hopefully, I'm making the world a slightly better place. It's sometimes frustrating, because it's very much driven by a sort of an external agenda. And sometimes it's really hard to work out where you're making a difference. So compared to my colleagues who are on the ground, delivering services, sometimes working out whether the one conversation you had with a Member of Parliament really makes a difference in the end, and is somewhat challenging. And the other thing, I will go into kind of how I got here, the other thing I want to mention is, it's just a really big organisation, both to get all over the UK, but also just in terms of staff size. And that's something that's quite new to me, and sort of has its drawbacks and benefits. So it's really great for kind of training and really great for sort of, if you want to talk to someone about the best way to look after a racecar or you can find it in natural trust, but equally sort of there's a there's a benefit in having a small charity and knowing everyone as well. And so in terms of how I got here, I've always been interested in environment. I volunteered at school, I think conservation club at school. And that led me to enter in competition to become a different climate change champion, which meant I sort of spook across the UK about climate change. So carried interest throughout and then University. I joined a group called the UK youth Climate Coalition, which was a volunteer led youth group that talks about climate change into campaigns. And also university I did quite a lot of internships. During the summer holidays, I made most of being in the halls and volunteered a couple different charities. So the Men's Health charity, which does work on men's health, hands society, which is kind of parliamentary and political, and also another one called the constitution society. Couple of those were unpaid, unfortunately, but one was paid and quite well paid as well. I graduated so I needed an undergrad degree I then we actually went back home to Essex and worked in my local theatre as a comms assistant. So not what you'd expect in kind of a you know, a charity career but I was sort of marketing em shows but also doing a little bit social media copy, which then then really useful for for later jobs. After that, I worked at a think tank called the Institute for Public Policy Research, doing events, which is something I'd worked on a little bit at the theatre and Gave me sort of a, you know, an idea of how to become a logistics staff which is quite good school for me. And I then worked at Facebook, the Hansel side to side society, which the parliamentary Think Tank, and then as a bit of doing everything for an organisation called Sierra, which is Labour's environment campaign. So I suppose sort of lots of different different parts of charity work and parts, different comms work and campaigns, which have been quite fun. I suppose I'm probably running out of time. But the three things I wish I'd known, firstly, that there's no one path, and I think, obviously all joined creative and wanted the tips and tricks to get in. But actually not having that pressure. Today, there's one ideal way of getting in, it was really useful, I wouldn't have thought that working in a theatre would have unlocked doors for me, but um, it was really useful. What else? I think part of that is creating your own narrative. And the other thing I think it's just worth knowing is the theory of change. So it might not be a term you come across, but lots of charities have their own theory of change to how they might see the world coming into place. And actually thinking about what you think, is the root in or sort of what things excite you. It's quite useful. So do you think that it's mobilising people in the ground up? Or perhaps delivering services locally, or even sort of kind of work ideas with parliamentary, I think is something to think about? And after the q&a.
Amy Lourenco 06:27
Thank you so much, Adam. That was a really, really insightful introduction. And I love that you've introduced something new to me, which is the theory of teams. So look forward to hearing a bit more about that later. And so, Paola, if you could go next. That would be great.
Paola Hanks 06:43
Great, thank you so much, Amy. Yes, my name is Paola, I am a Community Volunteering coordinator at Leonard Cheshire, the charity that supports disabled people to play, learn and work independently, regardless of their ability. We work with governments and we try to influence local, national and global and global government to change laws and policy to make sure that people with disabilities have a real possibility in society, we try to influence and make sure that we have a very inclusive world. I didn't, I studied for political science in Columbia, and international relations, and then I moved to the UK about many, many years ago, and I did a master's degree at the LSE, on comparative politics in Latin America, I really, really enjoy that. And then after that, it was around 2007 2008, there was a little bit of a financial crisis. I don't know some of you might have remembered that. And it wasn't that easy to get into into the charity sector. And it was my dream to find a job in the charity sector. But because of the crisis, I just decided to volunteer, I thought, okay, there might not be so many opportunities around. So I thought I'm going to volunteer. So I, I joined a charity called nurse project London, which was helping people with AIDS. And I was helping to translate from English to Spanish and giving workshops for Latin American people to have more information about sexual health and educating them. Then later on, I had a little bit of a gap in my career, I went travelling around the world and I later on joined, volunteer as a parent representative, and at primary school, and I really enjoy that. And then I joined a Latin American charity called ARMO, which stands for in the American refugee and migrant organisation, supporting Latin American people to have access to their rights to understand what the UK could offer them. And the charity also support people to have English lessons and feel more included in society. Then I became a trustee on safeguarding for the charity. For some of you, you might not know but trustees are volunteers who help the charity to to the directors of the charity. And that role helped me to understand safeguarding, to help with policies and making sure that people who are very vulnerable are safe and protected. Then later on, I also joined nurture ethical action for children, which supports vulnerable children who are look after the local authority. And that charity was really really interesting to work for because the job was very meaningful, supporting children who are very vulnerable. I needed a lot of support. And now I'm working for an amazing organisation called Yana Cheshire and really passionate about what they do. We try to support other disabled people. We currently have about 120 care homes in the UK and we support them as much as we can. We are trying to keep them safe. Despite COVID-19 we're trying to make sure that everybody's safe and protected. And we also have programmes supporting young disabled people internationally, making sure that they have access to education. And we also have programmes supporting young disabled people in the UK to have access to differently skills and gain confidence, and also supporting them to have access to employment with some paid internships with top employers. My role on a day to day basis is really meaningful. We are trying to have engagement with the community, making sure that we deliver lots of sessions for people at the moment, virtually because now many people can have access to the care homes as everybody knows, it's very difficult at the moment, to do face to face volunteering. But we are trying to do everything virtually. And yes, so that's, that's all about me and how I got into the charity sector. Thank you.
Amy Lourenco 11:02
Thank you, Paola. And it sounds like a really international career so far with travelling and studying in Colombia and in London. So I'm sure that will resonate with a lot of the students here today, who will be international students as well. So I look forward to exploring that a bit later. Thanks. And next will be Emily.
Emily Niner 11:27
So I am Emily Niner. As it says there, I'm the participation programme manager at Ambitious About Autism and Participation Programme Manager is a lot of words. I mean, lots of people are called programme managers. And it can mean very different things. So what I do, leading this team is I work with autistic young people across England, and aged 16 to 25. And we offer participatory opportunities. So that could be research. And we do a lot of research projects with CRAE, which is the Centre for Research in autism and education at the Iowa at UCL. Lots of letters there. And we run the services. We do a lot of work in policies. So like Adam was saying, but I support the young people across the country to feed into our consultations. And so everything that we do ambitious is led by that cohort of young people. And what else do we do all sorts is really changed. I used to run a lot of panels face to face, I used to work a lot of weekends, and bringing young people together, mainly in London, but also in Manchester, to work on campaigns that were important to them. So they would come up with a topic, I would find funding, and then we'd work together. And obviously can't do that. So everything that we're doing is moved online, but actually, that has really opened up opportunities for me and my team. Because whereas before I had a limited amount of funding, I could only pay for a certain amount of train tickets, for example, now I can engage a lot more young people online. Because on my end, people, that's great, they really appreciate it. And actually, it's a lot easier to engage in for others, they really do miss the face to face interaction. So I think going forward, there'll be a mix of that. And I also sit on SMT. I don't know if that's interesting to anyone. But I've been at Ambitious for three and a half years now. And so now I'm senior management team, which means I'm a lot more involved in the decisions of the charity as a whole. And contrary to Leonard Cheshire and National Trust, we are tiny. So we have a charitable income of about 2 million pounds a year. So where I sit, I sit under the director of External Affairs, which means that I'm really we're really involved in everything. So we kind of have input on comms policy, marketing, all sorts, everyone's kind of all hands on deck. And part of my role, well, kind of separate to my role, but inclusive of it. And I did a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fellowship, travelling fellowship. And so I did that with the support of the young people that I work with, we came up with the topic, which was looking into exploring post diagnostic support services for autistic young people. Sounds nice, but actually it affects a lot of people when you're given a diagnosis, you're quite often just sent away with no information and that can be really damaging. So we did that. But yes, how did I get here, umm I run a lot of streams of work so it's quite hard to like, condense down and but I studied French and Russian. So you can see a nice link there. And French and Russian and I graduated in 2016. And during my degree I, the same as Adam, I did a lot of volunteering and internships actually found all my roles through UCL which is the real shout to you guys. So I did an internship at Leonard Cheshire in fundraising. I did an internship at Barnardo's and Children's Advocacy. I then I also helped out with Fitzrovia Youth in Action, which was doing some tutoring in a local college. And then my year abroad, I found a volunteering role for myself that time and worked in a school for disabled children. It was a School's set up by parents because there's not really provision in Russia, same as we have here. And then when I came back from my year abroad, I managed to get one of the Santander internships. So I actually paid was at London living wage not with Santander, but Santander funded the opportunity. So I worked for Alfredo Rafi and Camden. And that was my first kind of foray into participation, which really is just listening to the group of people who the service you provide, and making sure that it's led by them. I then had a role in participation, working with local authorities and housing associations, and then realised that my real passion was working with young autistic people, young people additional needs, and the role ambitious came up. And the rest is history. And so I was thinking about tips. And my tips are very focused on recruitment, because I've just done a recruitment and recruitment for my team. And so one of the things I was looking for was volunteering. And I think, ambitious, we don't have a requirement for a degree and it doesn't help because you've all got degrees, we've got degrees. And it's not a requirement, and we look more for experience. And I think now's a really good opportunity for volunteering. And a lot of people who are applying for this job, I can see that they were taking the opportunity to do befriending, or like online groups, things that perhaps they didn't have the time for before, because I know it can be really difficult to fit volunteering in. And I saw a question a bit about later, but I really needed someone who understood the core the cause, but I hate calling it that. And I could see that they were passionate about young autistic people, they had a link to that, or can people with learning disabilities, that I've really, really looked for that even if it was a little thing, I needed a link there. And when applying, please use the person specification, someone said about how do you stand out, we have a person specification for a reason. And even if some of my most favourite applications have been when someone has literally put the spec and answered underneath, and it's like great, I've got excellent examples. And I can use that rather than like a long flowing narrative. And yeah, I think that's all my tips. For now. I'm on a very recruitment, focus drive. But hopefully that's helpful.
Amy Lourenco 17:51
Thank you, Emily. That's really helpful. And I'm sure we'd be picking up a bit more on that recruitment experience in a bit. That's really helpful that you've just been through that so you can impart your wisdom about what you're looking for. Thank you, Hannah, over to you.
Hannah Taaffe 18:07
Great, thanks so much. It's really great to be here talking to UCL students. got very fond memories there. But so yes, I'm Hannah, and I am advocacy and youth advisor at Sun CSN, which stands for the scaling up nutrition civil society network. So that's a bit of a preview of what you'll find in the sector, which is that there are just acronyms everywhere. So yeah, forgive me if I use any during this session. But the sun CSN is part of a global movement of different stakeholders in over 60 countries who are all acting to end malnutrition in all its forms. So that comprises civil society, so charities and NGOs, but also business, the UN and donors and I work in the Secretariat of the civil society network, which is actually hosted by Save the Children UK, a Secretariat as kind of like an administrative function. And so my role in the Secretariat is to manage a programme called the youth leaders for nutrition programme. So the youth leaders are a group of 13 young advocates who lobby national governments but also global decision makers to take action on nutrition. and managing the programme covers everything from managing group communications, like hosting monthly calls with the youth leaders and sending them newsletters, but also it covers overseeing sub granting, managing the programme budget, reporting on the youth leaders activity to our donors and to our steering group, and also just to supporting the youth leaders as individuals as well. And another part of my role is to support our member civil society alliances with their advocacy priorities. So civil society alliances are kind of groups of civil It organisations all around the world who are also working to combat malnutrition. And I also support the West and Central Africa region of the Sun civil society network. And that allows me to use my French skills, which takes me back to my degree at UCL. So I studied French and Italian time another language student who has found her way into the charity sector. And UCL is really where my career started. So I started at UCL in 2013, which was a time when there were lots of student protests against austerity against University fees. And this is really where I got politicised, and I just wanted to do more and more. So I took out a few volunteering roles in really small places to begin with. So one was like a small protest group called the People's Assembly against austerity, who were quite often at these protests. I went into their office a few hours a week to volunteer with them. And then in the summer of my second year at uni, I knew I wanted to do some work experience again. So I just sort of sent some speculative emails to a few organisations and a few MPs. And we ended up getting a reply from the forces society, which at the time was a very small UK women's rights organisation. So I did an internship with them over the summer, which was initially unpaid for a month. But then after the end of that month, they asked me to stay on for longer, and thankfully, they started paying me. I'm sure unpaid opportunities will come up a lot in this discussion, as they're, unfortunately quite common in the sector. But what I was doing there in that work experience was sort of general admin activities, but also trying out a few things like helping out events, helping out on social media, and things like that. I then went on my year abroad, but I really kept my foot in the door with force it. So every time I came back to London, during my year abroad, I would sort of volunteer and event with force it and really, you know, kept that relationship with them. And which helped me to get a part time role with them during my final year at uni when I came back to London the following year. And so I ended up in a part time role as campaigns and communications assistant, which I did for the entirety of my final year apart from the exam period, which was really tough in terms of keeping up with coursework and everything. But it was so worth it. And I really enjoyed it more than my degree, to be honest. And so what I was doing, there was kind of a continuation of what I was doing it as an intern, but with more responsibility. So more social media, supporting force at local groups, producing newsletters. And I also wrote a report called sounds familiar, which I'm really proud of, which went in which talks about young women's experiences of discrimination. So after I graduated, I left Dorset and I started looking for other jobs, I started working at a place called Global Citizen, which is a platform for people to take action to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. And I was digital campaigns assistant, where I did lots of copywriting, for things like their campaign emails, and also online actions. And in my time, there, I was promoted to digital campaigns officer. So I started managing external campaign partnerships, and supporting on smart strategic things as well. And after my time at global citizen, I went on to say for children, UK, where I initially started off in a very similar role to what I did at global citizen, so digital campaigns. But what saved the children opened up to me was the opportunity to really get involved in lots of different kinds of campaigning. So campaigning with young people in schools, and that youth groups, and I really, really found my passion doing that I realised I loved working with young people. And I realised that I didn't want to do so much in digital anymore. So the benefit of a big organisation is that they kind of have more infrastructure to allow you to explore different things. And so I was tasked with a research project, looking into how save could campaign with university students, which was a really fascinating project. And I'm happy to talk more about that later. But then, while I was at Save the Children an opportunity came up to go on a secondment. So I'd have like a temporary change of role to my role in what I'm doing now, which is at some CSN where I've been since last May. So just before I talk about a few tips on getting into the sector, I'm also a trustee of a small charity, called Ali's future, which was set up in memory of my friend Ali, who was a student here at UCL, and then also a klore social leadership fellow, which is a kind of course where you can advance your knowledge of leadership, which was enormously helpful. And so my tips for getting into the sector just very quickly, are to find your passion and then show your what your passion is, and look for lots of opportunities to get involved with different things. Don't wait until graduation to start looking for a charity job. And really, you know, as soon as you're aware that you're passionate about something, try and get involved with different organisations and different groups. As soon as You can to show how passionate you are. And yeah, a few me I got into the sector by sending a speculative email so they can work. If it's a smaller organisation, and you get it at the right time, it really can work. And you can if you build a relationship with an organisation that can really help too. And the final thing that I'll mention is that you don't necessarily need a master's degree to get into the sector. So when I was in my final year at uni, and I was working at force it, I started thinking, Oh, do I need to do a Master's, and I asked some of my older colleagues if it was necessary for them, and they will recommend it kind of waiting, getting some work experience, finding out what you're interested in. And then if you want to specialise in something, you can do a Masters later if it's useful, which is what I did, and it's worked for me. So yeah, just something to bear in mind. You don't necessarily need one, but it can help depending if you want on what you want to specialise in. So I will finish there.
Amy Lourenco 25:56
Thank you so much, Hannah. That is really, really interesting and lovely to hear about the your trustee roles as well. Yeah, sounds like really, yeah. Valuable experience as well. Fiona, over to you.
Fiona Tan 26:16
Thanks Amy. So yeah,
Fiona Tan 26:19
I'm Fiona, I work at Save the Children, UK as a campaigner. I'm glad Hannah went before me, because she's probably explained quite a bit about Save the Children, we used to work in the same team, before she went on secondment. We've also worked in previous places together as well, but I'll go into that a bit later. So yes, I work at Save the Children, if you're not familiar with what Save the Children do. We are a child's rights charity, and child's rights organisation. So our kind of main goals and breakthroughs are to make sure that children have the opportunity to kind of learn and have the opportunity to survive and are kind of kept healthy. And yeah, making sure that children all over the world can be who they want to be. So both in the UK, but also in other countries as well. So I sit in the kind of campaigns team at save the children. So a lot of what I do is supporting and developing strategy for our various UK facing campaigns, and trying to influence the UK Government to make change on issues that we care about so often related to things like the overseas aid budget, or protecting children in conflict. And some work in the UK as well. So just ensuring that children here in the UK don't kind of feel the impacts that COVID has had currently, and are just protected as much as possible. And so kind of on top of I suppose designing the strategies or various campaigns and making sure that they are successful and impactful. I also work quite closely with our kind of supporters, so our volunteers who want to campaign with us. So in my role, I've managed a group of campaign volunteers called campaign champions who are adult volunteers, I've actually had a bit of a stalk on the participants list, and I spotted someone already who is a volunteer with us and is on this webinar, listening, so shout out to you, I'm not gonna call your name out, because don't want to embarrass you. But hey, and I'm also working as well on kind of our student ambassador programme. So Hannah mentioned this earlier, because she had started off this project, which I then took over. And essentially, it's looking to engage specifically university students in some of our campaigning work and building the out to be powerful changemakers at that university and kind of setting off setting them off on that sort of trajectory, which is really cool. So just to talk a little bit about like how I got here. I actually started off doing Biomedical Sciences at, dare I say, at King's College London, and I know, don't hate me, and, and yeah, I mean, I wasn't that much into science, I say I kind of just did it because I wanted to be a doctor but didn't get into medicine, so ended up doing biomedical sciences. But throughout that degree, I really realised that it was like the social side of science that I was interested in. And I kind of finished my undergrad and didn't really know what to do if I'm honest. And I remember I was like, Okay, well, I'll just do a Master's then because I don't really want to get straight into work. And I think I was the first year where you could get a loan from the government to fund your masters. So it wasn't like a situation where I had had didn't have the money and had to ask my parents, so did a master's and decided to do Global Health and Development at UCL. I think that courses were a sort of really realised that I actually wanted to work in the kind of NGO sector. So back in my kind of school days, a long time ago now I was quite supportive with like fundraising and things but didn't really realise that that could be a career. So it wasn't until this global health and development course that I was introduced to this sort of concept. And in particular, I think I did a few modules on things like conflict humanitarianism, health and like power, and global health, power politics and global health, remember the exact course names now. But I realised that this was kind of the sort of area that I wanted to work in. So I finished my master's like, okay, I want to work in the NGO sector, but decided to go travelling fast. So went travelling for three months, and then was like, Okay, now I'm gonna start the job hunt. And unfortunately, for me, I, I had a friend at the time, who suggested that I do an internship at Cancer Research UK, she'd done one there previously, and I hadn't really thought about my career, if I'm quite honest, but applied and going. So after I came back travelling, I went straight into that internship, which was in sports events are kind of like the fundraising side of things. And, and from there, I realised that I didn't want to do fundraising in charities. And, and that was an incredible internship, because I learned a lot about just how charities work it is a really large organisation. And, and just kind of like, yeah, just introduced myself into that sort of area. And once that internship finished, I was on the job hunt again. And it took me I think, three months to find another opportunity, which is where I ended up at Global Citizen, with Hannah, doing an internship, and actually worked quite closely with her on some of the sort of digital campaigns. And was there for six months, and at the very end of that internship, when I was still on the job hunt, I managed to find a role at Save the Children. In the kind of advocacy and campaigns division that I'm in now, which I wasn't seeking out, if I'm honest, I always thought I want to walk into humanitarian and programmes side of things. But with my experience in global system, and that kind of campaigning side, I ended up in the kind of policy advocacy and campaigns pharmacy for children, initially as an administrator, so doing very much like admin style work. And then within six months, I transferred to the role I'm in now, which is a campaigner. And I've been in this role for, I think, just over a year and a half now. So I think, just to kind of summarise my journey, it's, it's probably been a bit longer than I think other people. And it's not been so focused. But I think that's my top tip to share with yours. Everyone has their own kind of Route, and you will get there in the end. And I actually have to disagree with Hannah's point. She worked by me saying of, you know, don't wait till graduation to find what you're interested in. And to find opportunities. Like, if that's where you are in life, go ahead and do it. But equally, if you're not ready for that, don't worry, like you will get there. I finished uni and didn't want to work. I wanted to go travel. And I did. And I waited, I just found what was right. For me. I didn't do any volunteering or internships at university because I didn't want to, and I'm still where I am now. So just don't don't let that kind of faze you because I remember being at university and comparing myself to people who'd done internships and part time jobs and thinking that I was behind, but you're not like you have your own path. And don't forget that. So I think I'll pause there.
Amy Lourenco 33:01
Thank you, Fiona. So really good. Good point. And everyone's got their own path. Oh, yeah, absolutely agree. But you might get there quicker if you've done stuff before. S, over to you.
Sabina Siddiqui 33:17
Alright, thank you. Hi, everyone. So my name is Sabina and I am currently working as an education programme manager at a charity called Breaking Barriers. The primary aim of the charity is to get refugees and people of a refugee background into employment. And my roles and responsibilities have changed quite a bit of the past few years as I was lucky to join the organisation at a time where it was growing and it continues to grow. So initially, I was hired as an Education Officer which was back in May 2018. And then went on to becoming a programme coordinator and now programme manager. So I've gone from case working refugees organise the organising like English and IT courses, managing volunteers to creating materials, writing programmes strategy, recruiting new staff members and developing new courses. So how do you know the past two and a half three years have been quite a lot of different roles that I've taken on. And similar to Fiona, I didn't really know I want to do I wanted to do I was at university. I studied languages at undergrad, and because I had a passion for languages and through studying multiple I kind of understood the opportunities which arise when you when you learn a language, and the experiences that you have when you fully comprehend the language of the country that you are living in. So I did something that many students used to do. And that's complete a TEFL and go travelling and teach over over the breaks over you know, reading weeks and summer. And that's where I was really exposed to like different types of teaching methodologies or learning styles and really helped me to get to where I am right now. I started to develop an interest in refugees and forced migration whilst the Arab Spring was unfolding. And I was further exposed to the harsh realities of refugees whilst I was living in Egypt. And during my master's at UCL, which was in transnational studies, I focused on the discrimination between different groups of refugees. And whilst I was doing my master's, I was volunteering, hiring great migrant Support Centre, to gain a better understanding of situation of asylum seekers and refugees living in the UK. Once I completed my master's, I applied for internships in London and abroad, they were all unpaid at that time to ones I was coming across. And I was accepted as an intern at an international organisation in Egypt. And I volunteered there for I think it was three and a half months before I came back to London, and got my job at breaking barriers. I do understand that for many reasons, not everyone is able to give their time for free. And unpaid internships, although a valuable experience are not possible for everyone. So echoing a lot of what has already been said, I would really recommend to research the type of charity or NGO you would like to work for, and have a look at job roles and person specifications and see what they are looking for. I feel that for many of these organisations, especially it is going to be your first job, your first role, you need to show commitment. So if for example, you want to work at a charity that, you know, helps dogs, for example, show that despite having multiple responsibilities of studying and say working part time, you've been able to volunteer once a month, or you know, you've been able to participate in something that's got to do with helping dogs or helping animals. Because that's in my experience. And when I've been going through the recruitment process, that's, that's something that I have been looking for. And given my experience, I would really encourage you all to pursue a career that you are extremely passionate about. Because when I first started working, the only thing that will kind of make up for the longer hours and, and the left and the little pay was the fact that I really did want to make a difference to the lives of the people that was working with the refugees and helping them that was like the main thing that would keep me motivated. And I think one of the best things about the role that I was working in was that I could see the impact that I was having, and like my team was having firsthand. So I just like I guess I'll just emphasise that, yeah, when trying to get a job in the charity sector, rarely follow a cause that you are passionate about, and show your dedication, whether that's in your religion, or through your volunteering, and in your cover letter. And if you happen to go for you know, get a chance to go for an interview as well just show how you're really committed and committed to the cause. And because that, in my opinion, is highly important. And that's it.
Amy Lourenco 37:58
Thank you for being I think that's really important what you've said there about how not everyone can afford to take those unpaid opportunities. And but you know, you do have to show your interest in your motivation to an employer. So even if it's just once a month doing some volunteering, or just something small can kind of help that. And that was really useful. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Oh, it's lovely to hear about your background and how you got into the sector. It's really great. And so lovely. We have 28 questions. And so we've got a lot to get through. So first question, and thank you. So that, at least is found it really hard to get into volunteering at the moment, the screening process being quite rigorous, which I think a couple of you mentioned, volunteering at the moment is a good thing, because you have a bit more time. You can do virtual befriending and everything like that. But Emily's found that it has has been really rigorous. So how would you recommend that students stand out in the volunteering applications? Would anyone like to kick off with an answer to standing out in volunteering applications? Emily, that'd be great. Yeah, cuz you've been doing this recently? For your actual position.
Emily Niner 39:14
Yeah. So it is obviously a paid position that that I've been recruiting for recently. And I think the same advice goes about maybe I mean, it depends on applicate. If it's a problem, like application form, and then and there's a person specification, then do I did before really outline how you meet that specification. And if you can have key examples, and that's great. And that's the same in interviews. I've just done many days of online interviews, and you remember the people and like, you said that you need someone who can facilitate online groups, and I haven't done anything online but actually when I was at university I was part of this society and I ran groups or something like that, like, honestly really basic key examples, and really interrogate yourself about your skills, because there are a lot of things that you could definitely link. I've seen some really creative answers about how people have had those skills. And actually, I really respect that because I thought think, yeah, you've sat down and thought, How can I meet this specification? And how else can you stand out I think, definitely having, like I said earlier, showing your passion for something. And I don't think there's anything majorly wrong with jumping, because as you grow and get older, like your, I mean, your principles might change, you might become interested in something new. And your life experiences might change. Like, there are some people who come and work for us who only became interested in autism when their child was diagnosed as autistic. And so you know, things can change. But I think really demonstrating your, your passion and your drive for. For that area, I think I got a lot of cover letters that were obviously just for charities in general. And there was there wasn't a single mention of the word autism or learning disability or anything like that. So I know it takes a long time. But if you could just do one little link, it shows that you're obviously interested in that role, and not just any role. And I think you need to make the recruiter feel like this role is the one for you. If you can, it's hard, though, it's really hard.
Paola Hanks 41:36
With any passion, I think you show your passion about what you what you want to do. If you have a really hard feeling for the charity you want to volunteer for. When you go through the recruitment process, the recruiter will see that so at no charge, and I'm also supporting the recruitment and national recruitment of all of our volunteers. And we are trying to get back to all of them. And we do a screening polls, and we make sure that we get the opportunity to everybody, but what I've noticed is that if you are applying for a role, just make sure that you match those skills that you have with the rod because that will show that you're quite fit for the role. So I would say that's a really good place to make sure that when you have the straining call or the interview to just show that you have those skills are matching really well with their role description. I think that will really help you to get into one or two.
Amy Lourenco 42:31
Thank you so much, Paola and Emily for answering that question. That was really useful. I'm sorry, did I just see Sabina, did you want to add something I just saw a hand go up and again, go back down. I couldn't see where it came from.
Adam Dyster 42:47
Sorry, that was my hand. Oh, yeah. The other thing, I think it's also about sort of the the narrative you use, I, you know, I've worked across like lots different charities that don't necessary all mashed together. But actually, you know, recognising that you can craft that. And actually, everyone, you know what we thought crafting a little bit. I think the other thing would be really useful for when I was applying was remembering some of the really tangible projects I was working on. So I think something that no one tells you is make a note of sort of projects or things that you're working on, even if it's really tiny of it's part of a Student Committee, making a note somewhere, even if it's sort of on your memos, or perhaps on LinkedIn, about I don't know, you organise event with 50 people. Because when it comes to the application in the interview process, that's really helpful to say, it means it sort of goes from I'm good at organising events to I did this, and this is how I did it.
Amy Lourenco 43:37
Great, thank you so much. That's really helpful advice. Yeah, always say that students as well to write down all the things that you're doing. That's really helpful. So next question, comes as a really interesting question, actually, about how difficult is it to switch the thematic focus of your work once you're involved in the sector? So for instance, is it easy to switch from working on international migration to climate change policy? It was the was the example given there has Has anyone switch their kind of theme of work? And how easy is that to do?
Hannah Taaffe 44:11
Yeah I'm happy to go. So yeah, I, I kind of ended up in a series of international development related roles in the last three roles that I've had, but almost purely by accident, I have to say, and as I said, I sort of started out in anti austerity types of volunteering, and then I went on to work in women's rights, you know, solely in the UK. But then after that, I was able to get the job of global citizen, which is more, you know, focused on a variety of issues across the whole range of SDGs. And so I think when it comes to transferring your thematic focus, it can, it can really easily be done if you can show that you have you know, the transferable skills. You know, we've mentioned the person's back if you can show that you can hit With the skills and experience needed in the person's back, then that is often what is what people are most looking for in recruitment. But I think it's still really important to have passion when you're changing your focus. So if you're changing from something you're passionate about to something else that you're passionate about, that's great, as long as you can demonstrate in your application, that you still have this sort of passion for that cause, then that's fantastic. I think I've never tried, I've never applied for a job, or I'm not passionate in some way about the cause. Because, you know, I think as has been mentioned previously, you end up working so hard in the charity sector, pay isn't as great as you could find elsewhere. So the benefit of doing it is really working in something that you're passionate about. So I think a real combination of showing that you have passion, and having the transferable skills to move from issue to issue is, is the best way of doing it. And if you look at the careers of a lot of people who are kind of senior leaders in the charity sector, you'll see that they've worked at all kinds of different organisations focusing on a variety of issues. So you don't don't be worried that you're pigeon yourself, you'll pigeonhole yourself early, if you get into one, you know, sort of automatic focus, because it is you are able to change later on if you want to.
Amy Lourenco 46:22
Thank you, Hannah, that was really good to know, a great answer to that one. And so the next question is a bit more of a general question. And so what's one thing that you've learnt during your work that you couldn't during your studies?
Adam Dyster 46:35
There's something around sort of the compromise and sort of things not entirely, always working out? That well, and I think actually, you know, it might be me looking back with a really good rose tinted glow, but I think University works out quite well, and things sort of quite formatic and programmed. Whereas I think in sort of charities, you come across kind of more obstacles on what sort of challenges you might do. And actually recognising that everyone is sort of learning a little bit on the on the spot as well. There aren't sort of real experts, and there aren't the people that you know, dictate everything, but your voice is just as valid, which is really different from from study where you're learning really from, from an expert in the field. So yeah, knowing that you can come up with ideas and come up with new ways of learning things, is probably the main thing for me.
Amy Lourenco 47:26
Thank you very much, Adam. That's a really good point. And definitely agree with that. In terms of the difference to academic study, Hannah, what were you going to say?
Hannah Taaffe 47:38
Well, mine's kind of boring. But I think something that I've massively learned in working, that I wasn't able to learn in my study, he was kind of more of those skills that you really only get in a working environment. So things like how to facilitate meetings effectively, to get the best out of people, or how to, you know, how to work with others, how to kind of, you know, liaise with different stakeholders, all of those skills, which I think you know, depending on your study, you might have the opportunity to work on those things if you're doing a lot of group work, for example. But group work wasn't something that I did a lot during my studies. So really getting into the working world was the best way of learning some of the most important skills, I think, that can help you in any role, you know, in any sector, things like you know, just how to how to sort of comport yourself in a working environment. Which is why I think a lot of the time it's invaluable to try and get that experience as early as you can.
Emily Niner 48:42
I think just adding to Hana, people management. And I mean, I worked for maybe two years before I was given a team. And actually the move to that. I mean, I now managed, I want to say I say nearly five people because I've got some part timers, but that's a huge part of my job now. And actually, it's it's Yeah, thinking about other people's careers, it's a really big responsibilities. Suddenly you have someone who is looking to you for that development and is looking to you to be kind of mentored and supported and everything as you get a bigger team. It's, yeah, it's a lot of responsibility. And it's also a lot of responsibility, being a recruiting manager and having the power to do that. Like sometimes I second guessed myself, I'm like, my old enough for my experience enough to be making these decisions about who should be on my team. So yeah, people management definitely. And you might, you might have some experience with that to kind of Yeah, volunteering or being like a community organiser or something like that. And, and I took a lot of my people management skills from being Kind of volunteer manager of young people. But yeah, it's a real it's a real learning curve being responsible for other people and and their lives and careers.
Amy Lourenco 50:12
Yeah, definitely echo that. And you've done it. So early on in your career, Emily was a huge learning curve for me last year, and I did it after over 10 years of working. So yeah, to do it in two years is, yeah, it's admirable and must have been a good learning experience.
Emily Niner 50:30
Yeah, and I think that's a small charity as well. And I think there's the balance between the two. So like, I would look at big charities and be like, wow, they're hierarchies. Like, I can't even imagine having, you know, all those people between me and the CEO. Like, I can email my CEO, you know, there's one person in between us. And so yeah, you can progress in different ways. And actually, people management, I've just kind of amassed as my, as my programme is growing quite quickly. Yeah, it's all great experience.
Amy Lourenco 51:03
So do you think that that smaller charity has enabled you to progress sort of quicker, if you like, then a larger, larger charity?
Emily Niner 51:13
Umm in this sense, yes. Because when I'm being smaller, I kind of have more autonomy, and I'm kind of trusted a lot more. because there aren't many levels of sign off. Like I've I've done partnership work with other organisations like the NSPCC. And like the Stein off it takes to do a press release, I cannot fathom. Like if I need to do a press release. I give it to one person, we have a one comms person, and we're done. Like, I cannot fathom that. But then I think what would be good for kind of what and what's also good in small charities is that, you know, I have my finger in every pie. Like we get to experience lots of different things, because there aren't any, there isn't anyone else to do it. But then I do look at other bigger charities and think, Wow, like, there are so many jobs that I don't know exist, because it's all packed into one job. And actually, there's like a whole person that does email marketing, or like a whole person who does like digital campaigning, like stuff like that, that still blows my mind. So I think there are benefits to both. Actually, if you're looking for like job titles or looking for like different roles. I think big charities are a good place to look and kind of like work out what's out there.
Amy Lourenco 52:31
Thank you can see lots of nods in the panel agreeing and as always want you to sit there and see it has a lot of parallels with working with a SME or a startup as versus a small company, a bigger company or multinational I think that's the parallels that can be drawn there. Thank you, everyone. Okay, I'm going to go on to our next question. And, and thank you for those panellists that have answered some of the questions by typing the answer in the q&a that is really helpful as we're getting through our answered ones. Thank you very much. So the next one was about the pandemic. And I work opportunities within charities and NGOs, particularly affected by the pandemic, given that charities and NGOs rely heavily on funding and donations. Anyone wants to take that? But how the pandemic has affected your work? This question is more in the funding and donations side. But you could make it a bit broader if you'd like to kind of the general impacts of the pandemic on the charity.
Paola Hanks 53:34
Yes, I'm happy to answer that question. I think yes, COVID has definitely affect a lot of this sector, especially the charity sector. We relied a lot on volunteering, and fundraising through volunteering. And we tend to have other volunteers supporting our services, going to do activities with them, maybe doing cake baking, selling cakes, and doing summer fairs, Christmas fairs, and that has definitely affected us. However, we have tried to change that. And we are trying to technology to bring other opportunities in but to be finding opportunities vertel activity so we have lots of things going on to support all our restaurants at the moment. So we have music sessions. We have yoga sessions online. What else do we have? We have? Wow, it's endless. I can't really say I mean, I have to say them. Because we are large charity. We have benefit from all these digital inclusion team. They pull it all together. They are bringing in a lot of technology. We're trying to fundraise a lot of money so all residents can have access to iPads, any digital equipment that can help us but of course, it has been a challenge. It has been a struggle, but we are moving them. And we are getting there slowly. And I think I could say proudly that the charity is doing really well in terms of adjusting to technology and I'm making all the changes But it has changed. And I'm sure it has affected some way or another, our funding, but hopefully, with the new back EC nations, I hope that helps. And I hope we we can always, always be hopeful about a better future. And I believe that in the future community can be huge. And we can all support chart. But I have to say, volunteering is something amazing. And I really encourage everybody to do something, if they really want to
Amy Lourenco 55:33
Thank you Paola, good to hear about how your organisation has been impacted. And Would anyone else like to add anything different?
Sabina Siddiqui 55:41
I guess I'd like to add that it depends on the type of charity and whether they've been able to deliver that or like, yeah, deliver their services online. So with breaking barriers, we were able to switch to remote support. So we can still carry out our support towards these refugee clients that we have. And that's why it hasn't affected our funding massively. We've had to, you know, change our targets around and funders are very aware, and considerate, obviously, of the situation. So it's been fine. And we've actually done a lot of growth during this past year, we've had think it's been an additional thing, maybe eight or nine members added to the team. And so yeah, I guess yeah, it just depends on whether or not the charity has been able to or if they can deliver their services online. Yeah.
Adam Dyster 56:31
National Trust obviously raise a lot of money from people visiting places, which has been more difficult, we have had redundancies. So I think there probably would be less opportunities. But I think the one thing that we've seen and across the sector is that actually, whereas location was really important before, it's a lot less so now. So I think, even this year, this year, in the next year, you won't need to necessarily be based near our headquarters in Swindon, or for me, based in Westminster to be asked to those jobs. So I think hopefully, that makes it a bit more accessible, particularly those charities that might have a real sort of regional hub, or office.
Emily Niner 57:06
Just to echo Adam there. I think it was NFP social, they did a report and it was something like 5000, British charities had had to do consultations and make redundancies. And for some charities, that might mean that they have a hiring freeze. But it might just be in the areas, obviously they've made redundancies, you can't then re recruit to to those roles for a while. But yeah, the location thing is true. So whereas in my office used to be a muscle Hill, which isn't particularly helpful for anyone, it's really nice. But it's not like a transport hub. And that used to put a lot of people off applying whereas this time, I had people applying from all over the country all over the UK, actually. And that was fine, because we are going to be home based for the foreseeable. And so actually, it did open the opportunity a bit wider. And it means that you don't have to play London rent necessarily, if you can, if you can work from home, so so so many of my colleagues have got permanent working from home contracts now and have moved to the place they've always wanted to. So like one colleagues from Crystal Palace, and now lives on the seafront in Brighton. And actually they've made the decision that they don't need to be in London. And so I think that's definitely a benefit, in my opinion.
Amy Lourenco 58:30
Thank you all, yeah, I had the experience of that as well with colleagues that have moved away and move to the seaside right makes us very jealous. Thank you very much. And the next question, I'm not sure if anyone knows about kind of the European view of UCL, maybe from colleagues or from things you've heard about the sector. But this person's question is that sort of work in Brussels everyone knows about LSE and knows about Oxbridge but maybe not necessarily knows about UCL. And is that a problem? see anyone know anything about that?
Fiona Tan 59:14
I can just jump in on that. I mean, not that I know anything necessarily. But like, it seems like that question is coming from a place of Oh, if I'm at UCL or not those universities Am I at a disadvantage. And so I'd like to say, Please don't think that that's not true. Yes, of course, Oxford and Cambridge are super famous around the world. But at the end of the day, it's your skills and your knowledge that will get you somewhere that thing when you're that like name of the universe and CV will get only get you like to an extent. And if that place is only recruiting people from Oxford and Cambridge, then you don't want to walk. It's ridiculous. So yeah, just bear that in mind. Don't let that dishearten you.
Adam Dyster 59:57
I was recruited by a fellow UCL history grad So there's plenty of UCL opportunities out there. And UCL Alumni is ready to help you into the tech.
Amy Lourenco 1:00:09
Thank you, everyone. Thank you. That's what I hoped you would say. If they're only recruiting LSE and Oxbridge people where they can't have a very diverse workforce. So yeah, thank you very much. Okay, so we kind of touched on Haley's question a little bit earlier. She's been seeing a lot of unpaid internships and the last three to six months, and wonders whether these types of work experience or work are worth it, or is it better to take an unpaid internship for a shorter period of time, and then look for paid work? anyone speak to that?
Paola Hanks 1:00:56
Well, I mean, it depends on on your personal situation. Of course, like, as somebody else was saying earlier, you know, it might be difficult to volunteer or have an unpaid internship if you're struggling a little bit financially. But if you can, and if you can donate a time, and if it's really hard to get a paid internship, yes, by all means, I would say it's a really good idea to have a an unpaid internship if you can find it, because obviously, a lot of people are looking organisations looking for talented people. If you do get an offer, by all means, just just take the opportunity. I think that's very positive. I hope that answers the question.
Amy Lourenco 1:01:35
Thank you Paola.
Adam Dyster 1:01:38
When I was volunteering, internships, during my summer holidays, I got one, I applied for one internship that was unpaid. But I also applied for one that was paid. In the end, I actually got offered both. And I was able to speak to the unpaid one, who were a charity and to be honest I think felt a little bit guilty about having an unpaid internship, and they were able to make it flexible. So I think it's always worth it. Even if you've got a sort of a part time job, perhaps work in a supermarket or something else to say, look, I can do this, but I can only do two days a week or similar. Just have that conversation because people know, they don't expect you to come in and say, Well, I can work any unpaid internships for forever.
Hannah Taaffe 1:02:15
I think that's a really important point. And that reminds me of when I was at uni, I think I really wanted to work with UN Women. And every single un internship that comes out is like nine months unpaid. You need a visa to work in New York, we're not gonna help you pay for that. And yeah, good luck, which is just, you know, it's abysmal. And I think the really important thing that Adam touched on is like having, like respect for yourself, and not being afraid to say to the organisation, you know, what, can you What can you offer me? If you can't pay me for my time? Can you at least give me lunch and expenses? And you know, if Can you be flexible? Is there any flexibility and budget and things like that. So just, you know, stand up for yourself, if you're offered something, if you're really interested in the role that you need the money, kind of use that as you can try and use that as leverage. And if it's absolutely impossible for them to pay you at all, then you can always move on. But I think when it comes to, you know, longer unpaid internships or shorter ones, I guess, you know, the shorter the better, so that you don't spend too much time being unpaid, because that is, you know, in London, that's very unsustainable. But yeah, flexibility is really key. I worked when I was interning it forced it. When it was unpaid. For that first month, I worked at a bar job in the evenings. And so I just said to them, like, Look, can you be flexible? And let me because you're not paying me? Can you at least let me leave early on the days that I need to go and get to the pub to work to pay my rent. And so just being honest with them as well, is really crucial.
Emily Niner 1:03:52
Just to everyone again, I think Be really careful. I mean, I responded to someone in the chat asking about how I got funding from Santander. That was a UCL scheme at the time. I don't know if it still is.
Amy Lourenco 1:04:05
It does yeah.
Emily Niner 1:04:06
Okay great. Whereas I found the charity, and then they basically we did a joint application. So I'd like kind of like Hannah, I sent loads of emails to places being like, I really value what you do, and would you be interested, you don't have to pay for me, but I'd be there. And then I saw we work together on the application they wrote about how it would benefit them as a small charity to have like an extra pair of hands and then what skills I would get that and so then Sandton through UCL funded that, and I without that, I mean, that would have been it like that was the reason that I was able to stay in London. And then that was the reason that I then got my first job and without that I would have Yeah, had to go home. Which wouldn't be the end of the world, but that was definitely the start of my career. And I just think Be really careful. I think If an organisation is asking for you unpaid full time for six months, just really check their principles, because I don't think that's right at all. And I mean, some places do only pay, I think I was the last year that benardos didn't pay. And then after that they did a policy and said, You know, we're not doing unpaid internships anymore. We don't agree with that. And they paid expense, they paid expenses when I was there, but it powers right, if it's the only experience you can get, and you're able to do that, then by all means, but just be careful that you're not gonna have to put this nicely being exploited, basically, and especially for six months full time people get paid for that. So just Just be careful. Protect yourself, basically.
Paola Hanks 1:05:50
Yeah, I agree with with with both of you as well. And I think yes, expenses are really important. I mean, most charities, even if you do three months internship, they will give you launch and travel expenses, some of them are really generous, which is quite nice. But yeah, it is. Maybe you can negotiate as well and you know, feel strong enough to, to show that you also have other skills and time. And that you also need some sort of reinforcement as well, because you're valuable. So just make sure that you can also put your make your point across and and eventually you will, it will help you at least to get into a paid role, I believe that that will help you to step into a paid position at some point. So it, it's tricky, but I will recommend doing it, even if it's for a short period of time.
Amy Lourenco 1:06:47
Thank you and the more people that do, stand up for themselves and negotiate and and say that it's not right, you know, the more chances we have of stamping out unpaid internships in the sector and providing equality of opportunity for already. And if you are concerned at any point, you can always come and talk to us in Careers about that as well. Thank you. Great question. Okay, so tips for beginners. So if you are coming to this your maybe your first year, or you've maybe not done any work experience, or any volunteering at all, and you're completely new to the sector, what would be the first thing that you can suggest that someone might do?
Paola Hanks 1:07:41
I'll probably say do a little bit of research about what you're really passionate about. Find out what you really passionate about with charities close to your heart, maybe because you're from a certain country, or like in my personal experience, I'm a Latin American, so I wanted to support the Latin American community. But if you're passionate about children's rights, or the environments or something like that, that will help you to think, Okay, this is a charity I want to offer because I'm really passionate about the subject and I feel my skills can really much any of those roles that are related to this charity, I think that could be a good way to start with.
Amy Lourenco 1:08:23
Thank you. Paola. So yeah, thinking about what your what your causes are, what your what causes you're interested in what you're passionate about, and, and someone asked, I think earlier for resources on that, and I've directed people to charity choice, which is a good website where you can search through different charities around different causes, if any of you know any others and do let us know. Any other kind of starting points, other than knowing your finding your cause or your passion.
Hannah Taaffe 1:08:56
Um, I would say, I would say start small, this might just be my experience, but I think someone asked a question in the chat earlier about whether or not it's best to try and start working at a smaller organisation or a larger organisation. I just think the smaller the organisation the more help they need, and it's more likely that they will have opportunities whether volunteering or paid for you to get involved with. So yeah, I think that's often the best way of getting started. Because I think when it comes to the larger organisations like say, the children UK, like Cancer Research UK, there's like a whole long process to volunteer with them. And you have to fill out an application form just for something to volunteer, which, you know, you can just decide whether or not that's how you want to spend your time. But if you really just want to quickly get involved with volunteering for something and getting experience of working in a cause. At the moment, there's never been more need for people to to help out and there are really there are loads of small community groups who are organising together to help people who are affected by the virus in all different ways. Obviously a lot of that will be online at this point, but there's a lot of stuff that you can do in the community as well. So yeah, I would say that that's kind of my piece of advice on that, try and start small to get a foot in the door, and then work your way up to big organisations from there.
Amy Lourenco 1:10:16
Thank you very much, Hannah that was really helpful. So the next question is for the international students, and I don't know if anyone knows if their organisation has sponsored international students or work visas in the past can be tricky. And we do have the new graduate route coming in which from this summer, which will allow students to stay for two years in the UK, and the employer doesn't need to sponsor. So that's an interesting new route that's coming in. I've got limited information from the government at the moment. But we are running a talk two weeks today, around this time around one till two, which will be advertised on my UCL careers, and that's with our visa and immigration team who will go through the new route in as much detail as we have at the moment, which is quite limited. But does anyone know? Does that organisation sponsor international visas at all?
Emily Niner 1:11:19
We had a very brief update SMT yesterday about this, but again, apparently they're not sure of all the information about the new schemes. So ambitious, there is the charity, and then we have a schools trust, which is also autism specific schools. And I know for sure in the schools that they do sponsor, and and that they will be carrying on with that sponsorship, sponsorship scheme, and that, but those are kind of like ta roles. So teaching assistant roles, and they're on the like shortage list now, something like that. So they will carry on sponsoring those. And then there was something about shouldn't really give half information, should I a tier five voluntary visa, something like that, and they were going to carry on with those. So I mean, we're a tiny, tiny charity, and we do that, but I don't know about other organisations. And then they were talking about when you recruit people that now have to demonstrate from a certain point that they do have the right to work in the UK. And But that can't be used against you. So they can't not shortlist you because of that. There's all sorts of new stuff coming in. But like Amy said, They're waiting for guidance from the government. But yes, some charities do sponsor. And we are one of those.
Amy Lourenco 1:12:37
Thank you, Emily. And that's, that's really useful and good to know that the schools do sponsor as well. And the tier five is a good route for people to look up. If you don't know anything about it. Do do look it up. UK Keizer website has a very good website for kind of visa information and the UCL visa and immigration page as well. But yes, that is another route. Good one to mention tier five. How long were you an international student? Because you studied in Colombia? And then here in the UK, right?
Paola Hanks 1:13:12
Yes, I was I studied in Colombia, then I moved to the UK. And I had to go through visas and all these paperwork that I know it can be quite a lot of work, for instance, and I understand, you know, it's not not very easy. But I was lucky enough to stay in the UK for a long time. So now I'm a resident, and that's very helpful. But we do. We do have Atlanta Cheshire we have overseas volunteering opportunities, and we support with these processes. And I know everything is changing with Brexit, I'm not so sure how it works at the moment. But if some of you are finishing your degrees, and you want to over volunteer and coming from overseas, I think there is a path for for them to apply from abroad. And then we go through a lot of recruitment process, we screen, your CVS, and we try to do have a lot of volunteers who can come from overseas and be placed in the residential homes. But because we are not doing face to face monitoring, I'm not sure how it's working at the moment, but just please feel free to visit our website because we do have a really good scheme on overseas volunteering. And and yes, so if you want to stay in the UK is a great place to stay. But I'm sure there are some other charities that might do this kind of opportunities. I'm not sure how many but is worth looking at it.
Amy Lourenco 1:14:33
Yes. Thank you, Paola. Yeah, there are lots of other opportunities like that aren't there? And you can go and work overseas and volunteer overseas as well. As another way to look at it. Yes, right. Yeah. Great. Thank you very much. So our next question is from Catalina. And what do you wish you had people to help you with? What do you wish volunteers interns would ask or help you? With. So if you're basically if you're creating your own opportunity or making a speculative application or a speculative volunteering application, how is the best way to go about that? Like? Because obviously asking something like, how can I help is quite vague? And so Can Can you turn it into something a bit more specific? What can you ask me? Has anyone ever been approached in this way to ask for kind of volunteering or an internship opportunity, and what's been helpful for you?
Adam Dyster 1:15:35
I've had it before where someone's come to me with kind of a very specific and quite discreet pitch about a project they want to do, or something we're not doing at the moment. They're example someone said, they're really keen, I think there might be a history student or something similar, they were really keen to do some research on where the National Trust had influenced policy in the past, and how that might be able to help us in the future. And they basically sort of set out an idea of how it would work, why it wasn't might be useful for the organisation, and kind of where we weren't doing it already. And so it made it almost sort of easier then to hand on to I mean, MT has a lot of have a lot of different levels of something area, that hands on seniors and say, Look, actually, this is a quite a nice piece of project, it doesn't mean that we're having to spend lots of time managing it, because it sort of does it on its own, it doesn't impact on kind of some of our callback.
Amy Lourenco 1:16:26
Thank you, Adam. That's really helpful. And anyone else?
Fiona Tan 1:16:33
Yeah, I was just sorry. I was just gonna add, just, it's just if that happened to me, and I was approached by someone. And I think what would make it easiest, if you know, roughly kind of the era that you want to work, and it would make it so much easier for the person you've contacted to find an opportunity? Rather than say, I just want to help out? Because I don't really know, I don't know what I would do with that. It takes me much more effort to think okay, well, who do I talk to, to think of how I can help you? Or if you said to me, I want to work in this specific area around this specific work, I could then maybe speak to someone and say, Is anything available? So yeah, just maybe think about what it is that you want to get out of it? And approach it that way? Because then that's more beneficial for both sides.
Amy Lourenco 1:17:21
Yeah, so trying to be more specific. And you might just want to start with a conversation rather than ask asking for an opportunity in your initial approach, I always advise people to now just start with an ask for an information interview, or like a 10 minute call with someone about their role and what they do, someone's much more likely to say yes to that, then asking for an opportunity.
Sabina Siddiqui 1:17:46
Just to just talk to the outside, follow the work of the organisation and know what they're doing. So I've had a couple of volunteers come to me, because they've seen that were developing new courses, for example, were going remote. And so they've said, we've got, you know, experience and doing x, y, and Zed and we think we could be very beneficial to you how have they read, like our annual report, for example, and they know what our plans are for the future. So I think if there is a specific type of chart that you would like to work for, just kind of follow up on what they're doing, what their current kind of aims are, and see how you can help them in achieving achieving those aims. It can be useful.
Amy Lourenco 1:18:28
Thanks Sabina.
Emily Niner 1:18:30
I was gonna say about content. So digital content, website content, if you've got good writing skills, which I imagine you all do, and writing content is great. We've had quite a few kind of like speculative things come into the info inbox being like, I'm an autistic young person, and I would really like to talk about this experience, or I'm a teacher, or I'm a student, different things. And would you would you be interested in a blog, an article or a video, something like that, and we've got some really, really good content. And people have become like, guest bloggers for us, and things like that. And then you can negotiate payment for that. So being paid per piece. For example, all the people I have on my books who are autistic and people if they take part in, help out with like training or working on resources, and they are paid for their time. So again, if you are going to offer things like that, only do it if you're able, because if they're getting a good piece of content that is like driving people to your charity, then you should be paid for that. It's the banging the same drum.
Paola Hanks 1:19:44
And I've also been recently approached, but so many people who want to volunteer and they said, I would like to help this Tell me what roles you have available. So I say yes, of course. Let's see. And so what I usually do, I ask them what the skills are have, what can you offer to us as well? And then I'll try to, depending on what they say too much them with the roles that we have. So I think by asking them, what skills they have, they also helps them to question themselves what they want to do. I think that's a very important question for all of you, what would you like to do? And if you manage to answer that question to yourself, and that's easier to to see where you can go.
Amy Lourenco 1:20:31
Thank you all that was really helpful. And I think that's all we've got time for one minute to go. And so I'm sorry to everyone that we didn't get through all of our questions today. And I really thank you for for putting, putting your questions and panellists. Are you happy? If if you're on LinkedIn, are you happy? If people add you on LinkedIn or ask questions there if they really wanted to follow up something that, you know, they couldn't, can ask today? Or if you prefer, it can can go through me? Or if you're if you're not happy,
Sabina Siddiqui 1:21:08
I'm totally fine with that, yeah.
Emily Niner 1:21:10
I think people have already started actually, because the notifications.
Amy Lourenco 1:21:16
Fantastic. Students, always make sure that you say that you were at the event today so that the panellists know who you are, and then they're more likely to respond to your query. And add you or accept your invite, whether they might be like, oh, who is this person? Like? I don't know. So do you add a note to your to your request? Okay, huge, huge thank you to all our panellists. You've been absolutely brilliant. I'm really loved hearing about your insights about your experience and such great advice for getting into the the charity and NGO sector. So a big Well done, and a virtual applause to you. Thank you very much. And yeah, I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Jo Budd 1:21:56
Thank you all so much for watching this video. There are so many key takeaways from this panel discussion, from making sure that you can demonstrate your passion for a particular cause by gaining a variety of experiences within that area. From there being no one correct pathway into the charity and NGO sector, as all skills and experiences are highly valued. Thanks again for watching and we'll see you next time.