Volunteer Handbook
This handbook assists our talented and enthusiastic volunteers to further develop their critical role in the delivery of UK Space Design Competitions. Veteran volunteers and staff have contributed advice. With new volunteers arriving each year, this helps speed the learning curve, adds to your toolkit as a supporter of SDC students. The calibre of SDC volunteers is astonishingly high but everyone starts as a rookie: so this handbook helps volunteers to create – and have – the best UKSDC experience possible.
Types of volunteers vary: some are industry professionals, many are competition alumni from varied disciplines and others are interested due to their own technical studies. Use this handbook to understand the mission, techniques, and how to hone or expand your input to the events.
Please help us to improve the volunteer handbook by providing us with feedback here.
Welcome to Volunteering
The aim of the UKSDC is to help students gain confidence and technical capabilities within STEAM subjects via a complex space industry company simulation. Here you will find all of the useful information to use throughout your role at the competition. Maybe its your first time volunteering and you want to understand more about the aims for our volunteers, or perhaps your are trying a new role and wondering what your responsibilities are throughout the day, these resources will help provide descriptions and examples of what to do to help the students.
We believe that it is essential to have professional conduct from both our volunteers and our students, and insist that all volunteers review the guidelines for these conduct that are adjacent. We also prioritise student and volunteer welfare throughout the day, and so volunteers must be aware of our policies relating to this.
Finally, some of our more experienced volunteers have provided detailed information regarding how volunteers should provide advice to students in a helpful and engaging way – not giving away the answer, but helping to guide the students to finding it themselves. We have also included guidelines for how to work through the RFP, including the interconnections between departments, as following this strategy helps to minimise the stress for students by providing a consistent workload throughout the day and optimising communication within a team. Whilst it is not your role to force students to follow this approach, it is good to be aware of it, such that you can notice deviations that may cause extra stress for the students in the hours to come.