Welcome to Edith Cowan University VolunteerHub

Thank you to our amazing ECU Student Volunteers whose smiles, fun and enthusiasm shined during our recent Photo Shoot.

On the 26 January 2014, our fantastic ECU volunteers offered their time to help out at Carine Masters Swimming annual Australia Day Swim. The event was held at the beautiful Scarborough Beach and involved a 2km open water swim. All proceeds from the event went to Huntington’s WA. From all reports it was a great morning and students thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

"The ECU students were brilliant, very helpful and energetic."

Jane Laws

Event Manager, Carine Masters Swim.

The Volunteers in Sport project is a collaboration between ECU, The Department of Sport and Recreation and Volunteering WA. The purpose of the project is to assist Sports and Recreation clubs in Western Australia to recruit and retain volunteers.

This is a great opportunity for ECU Students to take part in a range of interesting volunteer positions.  

Make sure you check out all of the volunteering positions posted.

Happy Volunteering!!!

VolunteerHub – Blog

Will Volunteering help me with future employment?

It certainly will!          

Some American studies have found students who volunteer are more likely than non-volunteers to have leadership ability, social confidence, and skills in critical thinking and conflict resolution (Astin & Sax, 1998; Astin, Sax and Avalos, 1999).

(Source: Volunteering Queensland “Innovative Student Engagement: A perspective”)

 2014 Volunteering Programs

We have some exciting volunteering activities happening in 2014. Ensure to cast your eyes over the VolunteerHub website to ensure you don’t miss out. As a valued member of our VolunteerHub community you will have exclusivity to volunteer events, workshops, industry networking opportunities and much more.

2014 Events include:

• ECU Volunteer Fair;
• Volunteer Speed Networking workshop, where you can  link with key industry partners; and
• Student Volunteer Induction Workshops.

Thank You Thank You to all our Volunteers

We wish to thank ECU Student Volunteers who have participated in volunteering programs. Your time and enthusiasm is greatly appreciated. We look forward to working with you in 2014, which is shaping up to be an exciting year for ECU Volunteers!

We also wish to thank staff at ECU and external organisations that have offered volunteer opportunities to students throughout the year.

Volunteering at ECU gives you the chance to start your career journey early and in the right direction.

Volunteer work is unpaid work that can be undertaken with a broad range of organisations and in many different roles. People volunteer for many reasons, the most common of which is a desire to use their time to give back to their communities.

Benefits of volunteering

While there is no financial gain in volunteering, there are plenty of other rewarding benefits, including:

• boosting your self-confidence;
• making a positive difference to other people’s lives;
• enriching your community;
• testing out careers and industries that interest you;
• learning new skills and developing existing ones;
• enhancing your employability and job-readiness by giving you real-world experience;
• accessing useful training that is sometimes offered by volunteer organisations;
• expanding your personal networks (making new friends and contacts);
• expanding your professional networks (making career contacts and getting to know people who might act as a referee for your job applications);
• improving your CV, and contributing towards experience you could discuss in a job interview; and
• gaining personal fulfilment and having fun!

How to volunteer

On VolunteerHub, you can find:

• a list of current volunteer opportunities;
• various resources related to volunteering; and
• links to external volunteer organisations.

If an organisation has posted an advert for a volunteering opportunity on the VolunteerHub or elsewhere, you can contact them directly. They are likely to ask you about the skills and experience you can offer and how much time you can spare (and when).

Alternatively, you can contact us at careers@ecu.edu.au for further advice and information about upcoming projects and volunteer opportunities.

Volunteer training

We offer all enrolled students a free Volunteer Induction Workshop that we strongly recommend all student volunteers attend. Inductions are run frequently across all ECU campuses, and only take about an hour. At the induction, we will give you valuable information about volunteering, including:

• duty of care;
• Occupational Health and Safety;
• insurance;
• equal opportunity and diversity;
• confidentiality and data protection;
• expenses;
• organisation expectations of student volunteers;
• student volunteer expectations of organisations; and
• your rights as a volunteer.

We will also provide you with a list of current volunteering projects and opportunities, which you can sign up to at your induction and get involved straight away!

Happy volunteering!