Volunteering (AUT Edge Award)

By volunteering as part of your AUT Edge Award you can have fun and feel rewarded by making a difference in your community. Find out more about the volunteering part of your AUT Edge Award and where you could be volunteering.

Complete 50 hours of volunteering

You choose who you want to volunteer for. The main criteria is that it's not paid work and that you're doing something that helps a person, charity, community organisation or the environment in some way.

Half of your hours must be completed outside of AUT (25 hours). We encourage more, but you can't do less.​

How to log your student volunteering hours

Log your hours as you go via Elab Online.

Where you could volunteer

• Helping out at a local animal refuge
• Street collecting for a recognised charity
• Working as a volunteer first aid or paramedic at a sports game or event
• Working as a volunteer surf lifeguard
• Doing the accounts for a charity
• Being part of a beach cleanup
• Volunteering for an op shop
• Helping make lunches for Eat My Lunch or food for local school breakfast clubs
• Helping with a reading programme or similar in a school setting.

Useful volunteering websites and charities

The following links take you to volunteer organisations that advertise for volunteers, but there are many other charities that keen to have volunteers. Don't be afraid to offer your help to a charity you believe in – just check with the AUT Employability and Careers team first if they're not on our list.

Websites that list volunteer organisations

• SEEK Volunteer
• Citizens Advice Bureau volunteering
• Volunteering Auckland

Charities that offer volunteering opportunities

• St John (ambulance and support)
• Conservation Volunteers NZ
• Ronald McDonald House
• SPCA Auckland
• City Mission