A questions commonly asked by volunteers is how much spending money they need to take with them. It’s important to remember that on a day to day basis local food will be provided for you for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as will water. Therefore unless you’re planning on buying additional food and/or drinks then during […]
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What’s included in my volunteer contribution?
Details of what is and isn’t included within your volunteer contribution / project cost…
Why can’t I volunteer in India for more than 5 months?
As things currently stand, the Indian authorities ‘issue‘ a visa to start on the ‘date of issue‘ rather than the ‘date of entry‘; in other words, your visa runs from the date it gets stamped into your passport. This means that you’ll need to leave the application until as late as is comfortably possible. In […]
Why does volunteering overseas cost money?
All of our volunteers are required to contribute towards the cost of setting up, supporting and running their project. A charity not asking for contributions towards the cost of running its programme isn’t likely to support you overseas! VESL is a registered charity and not run for profit. Everyone within VESL has experience as an […]
What do I bring as my ‘Teaching Object’?
We ask everyone invited to attend a selection event to bring along a ‘teaching object’, teaching aid or resource that you would find useful when teaching English overseas. It can be anything you like and can be for general use or for a specific lesson. You get a chance to discuss your choice of object […]
Can I apply if I live outside the UK?
We’d love to be able to say we could place everyone that applied but we’re required to interview all volunteers before we can offer anyone a place. Volunteers are also required to attend a training event before heading out to project. Unfortunately all our selection and training events are UK based so if you’re unable […]
I’m concerned I don’t have enough experience
This is a common concern and a natural one for people thinking of volunteering overseas for the first time. We don’t have any set requirements as such so we’d encourage everyone interested to apply even if you don’t have any direct teaching or overseas experience. The reason we try to be as flexible as possible […]
Can I Volunteer with my children?
Unfortunately we’re not able to send families or Parent and Child couples overseas at this point. Although we’d love to be able to accommodate families, we don’t foresee a time when we’ll be able to accept families or under 18 year-olds into our programme. The logistics of setting up, running and supporting family projects simply […]
Do I need a TEFL qualification?
The short answer is NO… you don’t need a TEFL qualification to be offered a project with VESL and the vast majority of volunteers do not have any formal qualifications. In general, applicants tend to have some experience of working with children or are able to show an appreciation of what might be expected of […]
When do I have to start paying for my project?
We send out project offers in the week following your interview and ask you confirm your place within two weeks. We ask volunteers to pay an initial deposit of £250 towards their project cost when confirming. If anyone needs time to fundraise this deposit we can arrange to extend that deposit date so we can be […]
When is the deadline for applications?
Firstly let me state that no time is too early to apply! We have a rolling selection process which is open throughout the year so technically there is no deadline. In practice, however, there are a number of factors that govern what date you must apply by… Re. 4-6 week project If you’re applying for […]
Can I volunteer with my friend?
Re. Partnering Volunteers We completely understand why you might feel apprehensive about heading overseas on your own and this is why we try to partner all of our summer short term volunteers. We also try to arrange things so that it’s small groups of volunteers starting on the same date and a number of you […]
Are all Selection events in London?
We do run a lot of our events out of London as this tends to be the easiest place for the vast majority of people to get to or it’s within a couple of hours of their front door. We do run events out of Manchester and Edinburgh but, for most people, these locations are […]
I’ve only got a 4-5 weeks available
Q. “My friend and I have graduation mid-end July and we start a PGCE course in September, so we’re not very flexible. Are we able to fit a project into that time?” A. We get a lot of volunteers in exactly the same situation and this shouldn’t be a problem at all. You might also […]
