The University of Plymouth Students’ Union (UPSU) has recently renewed the Investing in Volunteers Quality Standard, recognising the excellent work they do student volunteers. Over 1,000 organisations have achieved this quality award throughout the UK, ranging from small community groups that are totally volunteer-led to large national multi-branch charities that have thousands of volunteers.

UPSU is proud to have successfully renewed its Investing in Volunteers (IiV) benchmark. IiV is an opportunity for volunteer-involving organisations to benchmark the quality of their volunteer management programme.  The week-long assessment took place in November last year when over 60 students from a range of UPSU volunteer roles were interviewed by the assessor. UPSU has over 700 volunteers in various roles including Course Reps, Sports Volunteers, Peer to Peer Trainers and Project Leaders.

 “Volunteers are at the very heart of what UPSU do, without them we simply couldn’t represent the views of the student body to the University, one of our core functions.  Volunteers contribute hugely to the student experience, through representation, sport, societies, student development, fundraising and student-led volunteering projects. Their contribution is amazing.”

Tilda Fraser, UPSU President.

Investing in Volunteers demonstrates real achievement measured against a rigorous national standard.  The Students’ Union was assessed against a range of best practice standards and proved to excel in all aspects of working with its volunteers.

“I’m proud of the work our teams do to deliver the support for our student volunteers. This quality mark really exemplifies the commitment we have to student volunteering. Without the great work our volunteers do we simply wouldn’t be able to operate as a Union”

Gina Connelly, UPSU CEO.

“IiV provides us with the opportunity to look closely at the systems and processes we have in place to support volunteers and it reinforces our working practices.  It’s a privilege to support student volunteers who do so much, not only for UPSU, but also in the local and wider community.  Thank you to all our volunteers who do so much for our community.”

Mark Lockett, UPSU Volunteer Manager.