For #iwill week, over 300 students wrote their volunteering pledges on a paper chain for it to be transformed into a Christmas decoration for Stonebridge Farm in St Ann's.
On Tuesday 30th November, we passed it over to Stephen Gee at Stonebridge Farm. The cafe had already been decorated top to bottom in beautifully festive Christmas decorations (put up by keen volunteers) so we decided to decorate the animal's pens with our paper chain.
Suze handing over the Christmas Decorations to Operations Coordinator, Stephen Gee.
A photogenic goat and sheep loved having their pen decorated and came over straight away to see what all the fuss was about (as well as posing for a photo)!
In honour of #iwill week, we want to shout about some of the volunteering that wedo as a department. Staff volunteering is very important to us and this is emulated through the great volunteering work our staff members partake in.
Want to know why our staff love volunteering so much? Look no further...
Students Partaking in the #TakeoverChallenge at NTU.
This week, NTU hosted 30 students for the 'Takeover Challenge' which took place across the country.
The 'Takeover Challenge' is designed to put children and young people into decision-making roles within the workplace. This gives them the chance to give their opinions and also benefits the companies as they get to hear a fresh perspective on their work.
Tweet welcoming the students to NTU.
After being given an overview of the day and an ice-breaker challenge, the students that came to NTU were split into groups and went to work within three different departments: sports, the library and our department, School, Colleges, Community Outreach (SCCO).
The students that came to take over SCCO were briefed about what they would be doing for the day.
It was their job to take over the roleof our Creative Content Developer and do some vlogging about University life! They needed to design their vlog in a way that young people would find engaging and informative but the main point is that they were completely in control.
They were then put into groups of 3/4. These groups were mixed with students from different schools to give them a real taste of what it's like working with people they didn't know. This is the first lesson in what work is really like, you have to work with people you don't know all the time!
Then, each group went off with their supervisor to visit different parts of the University.
Group 1 visited the Employability Centre, the Volunteering team and the Global Lounge.
Group 2 visited the Student's Union, the Sports Facilities and the Library.
Group 3 visited the Chaucer courtroom, the Centre for Broadcast Journalism, the Nottingham Business School Trading Room and had a general campus tour.
The students also took over our social media!
The students were given a brief overview of each department by a member of staff that worked there. This was important as they needed to understand what each department was used for in order to inform their audience correctly.
After this, the place was theirs! They worked out who would be presenting and who would be behind the camera and made their vlogs using creative an innovative ideas.
After a morning of vlogging, and an energising lunch, the students took to the editing suite to edit their footage. They worked using the programme 'Windows Movie Maker' and played about with cutting, music and text so their vlogs would be as engaging as possible.
For an insight into the vlogs they created, here is Group 2's work:
After sharing the vlogs with one another all of the students came back together to write up what they found useful and what could have been better about the day.
The students all worked excellently together, taking on their roles maturely and thoughtfully, just like they would if they were really at work!
For more information about the #TakeoverChallenge click here to go to their website.
