Guide to using YHA’s Volunteering website

Welcome to YHA Volunteering!

• This document is a guide to searching and making bookings for volunteering opportunities with YHA

• General Information about Volunteering with YHA is available on our YHA website: • https://jobs.yha.org.uk/volunteer/ • If you are new to YHA please visit this site first for some general background information • All the current volunteering opportunities are advertised online and can be booked through our website, click on ‘Find Volunteering Opportunities’

Register as a volunteer • Registration takes 5 minutes!

• There are no difficult questions and you don’t need ID

Click on ‘Register’

Registration details

• To register you will need: – An email address

– Your date of birth

– Your current address

– An emergency contact name and phone number

– You will be asked to confirm:

• Your eligibility to work in the UK*

• Your agreement to our Volunteer Code of Conduct

• To tell us if you have any pending prosecutions or unspent convictions**

• Where you heard about us

*Most visas allow for people to volunteer but do check your eligibility to volunteer. EU citizens are free to work and volunteer in the UK.

**This is part of our safer recruitment practice and will not necessarily stop you from volunteering with us

Searching • Use key words to search like:

– Name of the hostel

– Role you want to do like ‘work experience’ or ‘traineeship’

Type the hostel name or type of role and options will come up automatically or click ‘Search’

Searching by date • Click on the Calendar icon to view the all our opportunities by month • Click on any opportunity to go straight to the opportunity page for more details

Click on Calendar

Events page • All our current traineeship and work experience opportunities

are listed on our dedicated ‘Events’ page

• Go to ‘Traineeships and Work Experience’

Click on Events

Opportunity list • If you Search or go the Events page a list of Opportunities will come up like this

To find out more you need to login or register. When you login this will say ‘More Details’ instead

More details.. • Each opportunity has a page with more details. Read it carefully!

Logging in

• After you have registered you will be able to login next time with your email address and password

You need to be

logged in to book

any opportunity

sessions

Booking an opportunity • At the bottom of each opportunity page are an option to Join the

opportunity/session

The ‘Join’ button looks like this Some opportunities have age restrictions and you will not be able to join an opportunity you are too old or young for

References

• We ask for 1 reference for traineeships and work experience

• You will need to enter the name and email address of a referee after you have booked the following opportunities:

– Hostel/student placements

– Work experience & traineeships

– DofE Volunteering

– HI/REAJ placements

– Gardener, handyperson & hospitality volunteers

Who can be a referee? • A reference is a way for someone independent from your friends and

family to vouch for you • A referee can be:

– Teacher or support worker – Employer – Supervisor from a volunteer role e.g. scout leader – Sports coach – Church leader – Someone your family knows with a professional job

• The referee will be emailed and asked to fill in a short questionnaire about you – please tell them to expect it!

• A reliable referee is good to have in place for your future job hunting!

What happens after I book?

• After you click to ‘Join’ an opportunity you will automatically receive an email reminding you of the hostel, opportunity and start date

• The Hostel Manager will also receive an email to say that you have joined the opportunity

• The Hostel Manager will get in touch with you to arrange to speak to you and invite you to the hostel to talk in more detail

• They are very friendly and want to help you so don’t worry!

Update your profile! • While you wait to speak to/visit the hostel you can update your profile

• This is your personal area of the website all about your placement/volunteering with YHA

• Please upload your CV, a photo and a copy of some Photo ID to your profile page

Double click here to add your picture

Click here to add your CV and a copy of some photo ID, e.g. passport, bus pass, driving license

Questions

• If you have any questions about using the website the Volunteering team can help you:

• volunteers@yha.org.uk

• 01629 592562

We’re based in Matlock, Derbyshire, and we’re very friendly and helpful