“Volunteering has allowed me to build skills that are transferrable to my work and has been a great addition to my CV....all of this experience has come back to my day job and helped me hone my skills as a leader.”

How did you get involved in volunteering?

I had always been keen to volunteer and as someone who had considered a career in teaching at one point, being a governor or school trustee seemed like a good opportunity to still support that interest. I signed up via the School Governors One Stop Shop (now Governors for Schools) and had a couple of schools reach out, and the Multi Academy Trust that I am now involved in. Becoming a trustee seemed like the perfect fit for my finance skills.

What do you most enjoy about volunteering? 

Getting to see things that you have discussed in meetings, or things you have approved coming into play. Being a trustee is a step away from the schools, which all have their own Local Governing Bodies; I always say as a trustee we are doing the business end (finance, HR, IT etc as well as high level educational standards), but we still have the opportunity to visit the schools to find out what they are doing, and this is what I really love – the schools in our trust are helping the children and young people in our care deliver to the best of their abilities and setting them up for the rest of their lives – fantastic!

What has been your proudest moment as a volunteer?

I have had some great opportunities as a volunteer, and am proud of the direction of the trust and the great Senior team that we have in the trust. While the schools and the leadership team deserve all the credit here, we have had all 5 schools in our trust go through Ofsted inspections in the past couple of years with positive outcomes across the board. So much effort went into the lead up to this as well as the very intense days of inspection and am so pleased with the results! As Chair of Trustees I also had to be interviewed, so also pleased that that went well for the inspections!!

What has been the toughest time volunteering?

Sometimes the timing of things can add stress, so does need some planning to ensure you are covering what you need to do. When things all hit at the same time, whether a series of volunteering meetings that are in the evenings when you are really busy at work, or Ofsted inspections that mean you need to juggle things to accommodate, can definitely be tough, but my view is I have made a commitment to this, so need to work out how I can give my best and make sure I am still taking the time to read papers etc – I find commuting time is good for this - and try not to leave reading papers etc to the last minute!

How have your finance skills come into play? 

Finance skills have been incredibly valuable as a trustee, where our role is to help set the strategic direction for the trust, as well as governance and management of the trust. This includes financial oversight, including oversight of budgets, financial planning and ensuring resources are used effectively and efficiently. We also have to ensure that the trust is on a sustainable financial footing and living within its means. As is being seen across much of the public sector, schools are also struggling to balance their resources with rising costs, underfunding in certain areas and demographic changes (falling birth rates means some schools are not full), so we need to make sure we are taking choices to ensure we can manage within the budgets that we have.

What have you learnt from volunteering?

Volunteering has allowed me to build skills that are transferrable to my work and has been a great addition to my CV. When I first started volunteering, while I attended a lot of meetings at work, I did not have much experience of chairing meetings, which being a trustee allowed. It has also helped boost my confidence in my work as you have to get involved in a lot of different activity, with strategic planning and decision making, I have also had to lead HR activity such as hearing grievances and appeals, all of which has come back to my day job and helped me hone my skills as a leader.

What would be your one piece of advice for other finance professionals looking to volunteer?

Do it! Do your research and understand what you are signing up for – but it is incredibly rewarding both in terms of the positive outcomes you can support, but also for personal development and supporting your career progression.