Volunteer Internship Programme

Background to the Scheme

The RACC Volunteer Internship Programme is a three month scheme to enable adults over 19 to gain a nationally recognised qualification in Business Administration, IT or Customer Service and work experience skills.  The work experience through volunteering takes place at the College and gives unemployed adults the skills, experience and work reference to enable them to progress to paid employment or further study.  The College pays the Volunteer Intern bus/train fares to come to College as well as providing a lunch allowance of £2.50 per day so that there are no financial barriers to the scheme.

After applying and being interviewed the Volunteer Intern is checked to see that they are eligible for work in the UK and that they are not barred from working in a college.  The College has a safer recruitment policy that ensures that both paid or unpaid employees status are checked to ensure that they are safe to work in an environment that has young people and vulnerable adults.

During the first three weeks the Volunteer Intern is trained intensively for two days per week in small groups of 6-12 on the underpinning knowledge and skills for an NVQ 2 in either Business Administration, Customer Service or Information Technology by skilled industry trained teaching staff.  The next three weeks involves induction into a variety of work environments at RACC and being supported in the workplace by a workplace mentor.  In the final six weeks the Volunteer Intern works intensively at RACC or in one of the College partner organisations and achieves competency in the workplace and gains the full accreditation at NVQ Level 2.

At the end of the three month period the Volunteer Intern is fully trained with a nationally recognised qualification, has completed an up-to-date CV highlighting their workplace experience and is supplied with a workplace reference.

The three month scheme is designed to help the Volunteer Intern to progress to further study or to paid employment.

Christina Conroy OBE, Principal & Chief Executive of Richmond Adult Community College states:

“This is an excellent scheme that combines practical skills-based training with a work experience opportunity to practice the skills and gain competency a in a work environment.  Adults that have been out of employment as a result of redundancy, caring for others or long term unemployment find it very hard to get back into the labour market.  This scheme helps local adults overcome the barriers to getting a job by gaining both experience and qualifications on a fast track Volunteer Intern Scheme.  Currently we have over 60 applicants and we are keen that other organisations in the borough work with us so that we can provide even more placements for trained Volunteer Interns.”