This is National Volunteering Week 2017 and IT Sligo is proud to support Sligo’s designation as European Volunteering Capital for 2017.
Third level institutions across Ireland have been encouraging students to volunteer to respond to the growing emphasis on practical learning and the development of civic leadership skills. By working with a range of voluntary organisations, students get an opportunity to do both while increasing their awareness of social and ethical issues in the wider community.
IT Sligo embraced the trend towards the development of civic leadership skills in 2007 when it became one of the first third level institutions in Ireland to start teaching volunteering as an accredited module. The Institute offers an elective module in Volunteerism across a number of programmes in the marketing, sports and tourism department.
How the volunteering module works:
Students who choose to undertake the Volunteerism module as part of their Marketing degree at IT Sligo have to identify a non-profit organisation to work for and must meet all legal requirements, such as garda vetting, completing a child protection course or area-specific training, to work for that organisation.
Over the course of a semester they must work for that organisation for a minimum of 50 hours utilising skills associated with their degree course. They must keep a diary of their work as a volunteer, and it has to be signed off by the manager of the non-profit organisation.
Ann Higgins, Head of Marketing, Tourism & Sport at IT Sligo & Solène Plaisance who is studying ‘Volunteerism’ as part of her International Marketing degree at IT Sligo.
While lecturers are available to mentor students who volunteer, the module largely consists of self-learning. Similarly, lecturers can assist student in finding volunteering work but it is preferred that students undertake the module with an idea of what they want to do
On completing the 50 hours of voluntary work, the students then have to deliver a high-quality 20-minute presentation on their learning outcomes. This must include information about their experiences, the contribution made to society, knowledge gained and how they envisage their future role both as a professional and as a citizen contributing to their community.
IT Sligo programmes which include the volunteerism module:
Bachelor of Business in International Marketing & Sales with French/German/Spanish
Bachelor of Business in Applied Science with Business (from September 2017)