5 Steps to your first ITF Activity

Engage and inspire your students now!

Schools industry Partnership

1. Pick your purpose

Do you have an English class learning to write feature articles? Or a Year 10 cohort who need to learn careers and employability skills? Think about what opportunities there are in Term 1 to invite a volunteer into your classroom or careers time and what group of students would most benefit from the experience. Why not have a speaker in multiple classes throughout the term?

2. Flesh out the details

What day will you be inviting your volunteer/s and what else in on your school calendar? Think about who else you may want to involve, you may want to liaise with concurrent classes for a larger activity or combined opportunity. Make sure you lock in the time, place and any other logistics before you move on to inviting your volunteer/s.

3. Choose a volunteer (or more)

On to the exciting step - finding your volunteer/s! Our database has heaps of volunteers in different industries, roles and levels of experience and training. Search using the fields provided on the left or type what kind of thing you're looking for into our global search at the top. Use the global search for specific topics or expertise you may be looking for. Just looking for someone who works in science? Use our fields to target your search! Volunteers may not always be available, so always invite them with at least a months notice. To guarantee a speaker, try inviting a few more volunteers than you need to make sure you have enough for your activity.

4. Prepare your school and students

So your volunteer/s coming and your activity is planned, make sure it's a success before it even starts by sharing your plans with other staff and students. Coordinate with the administration and reception staff the protocol for the volunteer arrival, best practice is to meet and escort the volunteer yourself. Help prepare your students for the activity by telling them who is coming, what kind of format will be happening and get them to generate some questions they may want to ask the guest/s. Consider getting someone to take photos and write an article for your school newsletter or website covering the activity!

5. Have a great activity!

The day is here! Encourage your students to look at their questions before the activity or to bring what they need to prepare if the activity is a workshop or the like. Remind the office that you have a volunteer visiting today and double check with other staff involved that they're prepared. Make your visitor feel special with a great greeting and thank you gift following the activity. Loved your first activity? No time like the present to plan the second!

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Schools industry Partnership