We were proud to announce City Year UK as the LSE Voluntary Organisation of the Year 2021, back in May! City Year UK is an education charity dedicated to empowering young people to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed in school. Since then, we caught up with the team to ask them a few questions…
What does City Year do?
Our young people give a year to help break down the many barriers that can come between pupils and their education. That’s an enormous commitment and one that we believe should be rewarded. In turn, we invest in our volunteers – in their skills, in their networks and in their future.
How have you worked with LSE students over the past year?
We have engaged with LSE volunteers in two main ways. We hired two LSE students into our Central Services team to support the delivery of our programme. They worked on several key HR projects for one day per week bringing their own skills and experience to developing new skills at the same time. We also took part in the LSE Community Engagement programme where 7 consultants worked on the organisation’s project and performance management over 8 weeks and delivered a report to our senior leadership team.
What do LSE students bring to your organisation?
LSE students have consistently been part of our central team for 3 years now. They consistently deliver outstanding work, bringing their academic and research skills to a range of problems and help the organisation find sustainable solutions.
How has the Volunteer Centre helped you in recruiting these students?
The LSE Volunteer Centre has been an integral part of helping us attract, select and retain students. They do this by helping us find the right student for our roles – it is important to us that students benefit from their time with us and we are always supported to find candidates who best fit the roles we offer.
How did it feel to win the award?
Three years ago, we had an idea to offer flexible volunteer position to students to help them develop a consultancy level skill-set. We didn’t know whether it would be a successful idea, but with hard work and support we have had candidates placed every year and they have made a significant impact. To win the award was vindicating in that it reflected back to us that we are offering students a valuable experience. We are really proud to say all the students we have worked with have gone into employment in their chosen field. We hope this partnership will continue into the academic years to come.
