Preparing for your educational or careers fair visit
Before visiting a school, college or university, or attending a careers fair, there are a few practical matters you should consider to help ensure your visit runs smoothly.
Safeguarding
Schools, colleges and universities have a legal duty to safeguard children and young people. Before your visit, check their safeguarding requirements and follow any instructions they provide.
For most one-off visits or career fairs, volunteers will not require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check (England and Wales), Disclosure Scotland check (Scotland) or AccessNI check (Northern Ireland), provided that they are never left unsupervised with pupils. However, requirements can vary between institutes, so it is important to confirm their policy in advance.
The ATT also has its own Safeguarding Policy. Before undertaking any volunteering activity, volunteers will be asked to confirm that they have read, understood and agree to comply with the policy throughout their engagement with the school, college or university.
Before your visit
To help your session run successfully, you may wish to:
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Check the technology – Confirm that the venue has the equipment needed to display any presentations or videos. If you plan to use YouTube, check that it can be accessed through the venue's internet filters or firewall.
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Ask about dietary requirements – If you intend to bring food or refreshments, check whether any pupils have allergies, dietary requirements or other health conditions that need to be considered.
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Understand the timetable – Confirm the start and finish times, where you should report on arrival, parking arrangements (if applicable), and who your contact will be on the day.
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Know your audience – Check the age group, approximate number of students and whether there are any particular curriculum links or topics they would like you to cover.
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Bring any resources – Ensure you have any handouts, careers information or promotional materials you wish to distribute. Much of this can be provided by the ATT, but please make sure that you give us plenty of time to get the resources out to you.
Recognising your volunteering
Many employers encourage staff to volunteer in their local communities. If your employer offers volunteering, charity or community days, your participation in an event may be eligible to be recorded as part of your organisation's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programme. Check with your employer, as this may enable you to support a school, college or university during working hours without using your annual leave entitlement.
We are proud to pledge our support to Developing the Young Workforce and join organisations across Scotland in creating opportunities for young people.
The DYW Pledge is a commitment from employers to support Scotland's young people to succeed in the world of work - through jobs, apprenticeships, further and higher education, training programmes and volunteering.