Case study: Sport and Exercise Science students excel on Streetsport placement
Throughout each year we aim to recruit enthusiastic, capable and motivated students to our team who can help us while we help them.
From a selfish perspective, we gain the skills and fresh minds of students who are working towards their degree- whether that be in sport, health, business or many other areas at RGU, AU or NESCOL.
In turn, this helps young students progress towards their final grade while gaining hands-on experience at a charity who truly value their input.
At the beginning of 2020 we introduced Aidan and Megan to the team, two 3rd year Applied Sport and Exercise Science students at RGU, for a period of 6 weeks which tied in with their placement opportunity module.
They were led by Hannah, the Streetsport Development Officer, and were recruited with the aims of undertaking tasks related to the recruitment, coordination and retention of volunteers for our various Streetsport community programmes.
The pair produced, gained respondents to and analysed their own surveys which helped to garner valuable information for Hannah and the rest of team.
Megan’s survey focused on quizzing current students about their thoughts and experiences of volunteering.
On the other hand, Aidan’s survey delved into how Streetsport could attract young male volunteers to match the great number of young female’s currently volunteering within.
Both of the surveys were executed in order to help better understand why students do or don’t volunteer and what they aim to get out of volunteering which can then help the likes of Hannah and Findlay (Streetsport Assistant) recruit more handy helpers.
Aidan and Megan also played a pivotal part in reinvigorating one of our longest-running Streetsport sessions at the Inchgarth Community Centre.
Participation numbers there were relatively low in the winter months but having created a new flyer and visited the local school to promote it, numbers quickly jumped up.
Finally, the placement students also contributed at our other nightly sessions as well as helping to improve presentations which are used when introducing prospective volunteers to the organisation.
Having their skills and youthful exuberance was a huge asset to Hannah and the Streetsport team as a whole which was greatly appreciated.
Megan, reflecting on her time with Streetsport, said: “I didn’t know much about the project before but after placement finished I realised how important and rewarding a project like Streetsport is, especially for the areas it’s aimed at.
“It was a very good and enjoyable experience. A major factor for this was the fact that all the staff, coaches and volunteers were so lovely and helpful”.
Thanks to Aidan and Megan for their efforts while at Streetsport and we wish them every success in their future endeavours at university and beyond.
If you’d like to volunteer, whether that be as a placement opportunity or not, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via social media or email. We would love to hear from you.
“Megan and Aidan have been a great addition to our team. We are very grateful for the RGU Applied Sport & Exercise Science course & to the 3rd year students who pick us as their placement provider.
This years placement centred around volunteering and how we as an organisation can improve our recruitment and retention. Megan and Aidan were tasked with coming up with solutions to challenges we wanted to address; increasing volunteering from students and from young males who reside in the communities we target.
They had to apply skills from their course to design how best to investigate these, collect data and use literature to back up their findings and recommendations.”
