Volunteer Centre Lewisham

Job Pack

Please read this pack before completing your application form.

This Job Pack has been designed to provide you with information about Volunteer Centre Lewisham in order to help you with your application. The hope is that you make an application that will be read and considered at shortlisting, and be invited to interview.

Please do take note of the advice, and avoid your application being discarded.

Volunteer Centre Lewisham is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee. This means that all of our activities are for the benefit of the community.

Set up in 2001 our vision for volunteering in Lewisham is:

to enable the participation of all citizens in voluntary activities which meet their own and the community’s needs in ways which make a difference.

The mission of Volunteer Centre Lewisham in support of this vision is as follows:

Volunteer Centre Lewisham seeks to be a leader in local volunteering. We are a user-friendly organisation, bringing together local expertise and knowledge of voluntary action in Lewisham.

Our purpose is to:

  • Advise and support persons willing to volunteer
  • Promote volunteering, social action and community involvement
  • Advise and support organisations which involve, and are willing to involve volunteers in their charitable activities

We are also affiliated to Volunteering England and must adhere to 6 Core Functions

  • Brokerage
  • Marketing Volunteering
  • Good Practice Development
  • Developing Volunteering Opportunities
  • Policy Response and Campaigning
  • Strategic Development of Volunteering

We achieve these through projects. Often funded by grants and trusts we have projects that help people to find volunteering and help organisations recruit and support volunteers.

We deliver information and training right across Lewisham and are well placed in strategic forums to ensure that volunteering is recognised as a valuable activity for the community, individuals and organisations.

This is important to us. Equalities forms are separated from the application before shortlisting. We use this information in order to ensure that we are reaching a wide range of possible applicants. If we are not we consider alternative ways to advertise.

Your application form is your opportunity to sell us your skills. We do ‘give you a chance’ you have to show us that we need you.

In the current climate our vacancies can bring in anything between 50 to 140 applications. We usually interview 5 or 6 of the best applicants. If there are a lot of good applications we can interview 10. This shows you that you need to catch our eye.

Shortlisting

The whole recruitment panel is involved in the shortlisting. Therefore a chatty email, or coming in to see us does not give you an advantage.

We look at all of the application forms.

Only applicants who complete the forms according to the instructions are considered for shortlisting. Therefore, if you send your CV we immediately disregard your application. This includes copying your CV into the form.

We look at your experience, and whether you are legally allowed to work in the UK.

We then look at how you address the person specification. We read each point, and then score your response.

This means that:

  • if you do not respond to a criteria we do not score it
  • if you put ‘yes’ we do not score it
  • if you put ‘I would hope that training would be provided’ we do not score it

Once we have looked at all of the applications, we total up the scores, discuss the high scorers and invite the best to interview.

The panel usually consists of 3 people, depending on the position and partners. This will nearly always be the line manager, a Trustee of the organisation and others relevant to the position, or because they have particular knowledge or represent particular communities.

We use a panel in order to ensure that you have the best chance of being heard and get the fairest chance at interview.

All panel members score your interview in the same way.

Tests

Those who are invited to interview are often asked to complete a test. This will always be relevant to the position. It is usually IT based and related to the position applied for. We may be testing your abilities to use particular equipment or packages, we might also be assessing planning skills.

Presentation

Sometimes we ask applicants to make a presentation or carry out a role play.

Here we may be assessing one or more of the following:

  • your knowledge on a particular topic
  • your communication skills
  • your ability to engage with particular stakeholders
  • your ability to research
  • your presentation skills

Interview

Each panel member will ask you a few questions. Questions are related to the position, the Job Description and Person Specification. We sometimes have a question that relates specifically to something that you have included in your application. All applicants are asked the same questions, except for any that are particular to your application, however, we will either ask this of everyone or no one.

We score each of your answers in the same way that we do when shortlisting. The panel discusses each interview, in order to ensure that we all have the same information to assess your interview.

We are friendly. We may look stern, but that is simply because we are concentrating on what you have to say. Try not to ‘read’ expressions from the panel. You will probably come to the wrong conclusion and throw your own confidence.

  1. If possible, complete the form on your PC and email it. We will not score less simply because it is handwritten forms, but if we find it difficult to read you might not get the score that you deserve.
  2. Make sure that you put your name and contact details. Just because you have sent by email, does not mean that we have your name
  3. Complete ALLparts of the form.
  4. Remember to include any relevant voluntary work
  5. The Person Specification is the most important part, tell us how you meet each of the criteria. Give us an example.
  6. Make sure that you send your application is sent in good time. If the closing time is midday on 4th of the month try NOT to send it at midday, it is likely to get stuck in cyber space. We are strict about closing dates.
  1. Do not write endless text for each point. Remember that we may have 150 forms to read, it is tiring. Be succinct.
  2. Do not ignore criteria. You WILL lose marks
  3. Do not beg, say ‘ I know that I can do the job if you give me a chance’ or add prayers. It adds nothing to your application
  4. Do not assume that we know what you can do, or know. Just because you may have done a similar job previously does not demonstrate to us that you understand the position. Similarly, do not assume that if we know you that means you will be invited to interview, we shortlist by scoring your application.

We look forward to receiving your application form. And hope to meet you at interview very soon.

Good Luck.