Elevate Career Programme 2026

Expression of Interest to become a Volunteer

Please fill in this expression of interest form, to sign up as a Volunteer and potentially participate in one or more of the 2026 OU Elevate Career Programmes (pending a suitable student match being found).

Please note the scheme requires you to:

Elevate Career Mentoring: commit to four one-hour mentoring sessions with your mentee between March and June 2026.
Elevate Career Insights: commit to a one-off meeting
Elevate Work Shadowing: commit to offering one day virtual work shadowing

Name (required)

Title

First Name

Last Name

Contact Details (required)

Phone

Mobile

Job Title (required)Please tell us your job title or give a brief description of what you do.

Organisation / Company Name (required)The organisation you currently work for (can include self-employment).

Business Address (required)

City/Town (required)

Postcode

Nation / Country (required)

LinkedIn profile URL: (optional)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/{your profile}

Why would you like to become an Elevate Volunteer? (required)Please give a short outline as to your interest in becoming a mentor

Do you have any previous experience of mentoring or facilitating work experience?This can include previously being a volunteer on Elevate or elsewhere. (Give details if desired).

OU RelationshipIf you have an existing relationship with the Open University, please indicate your point of contact below -

What sector do you currently work in? (required)This will be used to help us match students to you based on their interest.

What specific areas would you like to share in terms of knowledge and experience? (required)(e.g. skills development, dealing with career challenges, industry insights, job search)

Lived experienceWe value diversity and we recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength. As part of the OU’s commitment to tackle existing inequalities, opportunities to participate in the scheme are being offered to students from underrepresented and widening participation groups. If you have lived experience that you would like to share in order to consider relevant matching you have the option to do so here:

Which scheme or schemes are you interested in? (required)Please indicate any you would be interested in offering. You may select more than one.

Career Mentoring (minimum of four sessions)

Career Insights (one off session)

Work shadowing (one day)

Privacy Notice

This activity specifically uses your personal information for the Elevate Career Programme. This is because it is in the university’s legitimate interest, and is necessary in order to offer these opportunities.

The university may also review the information provided, using it to inform changes to similar programmes in the future.

We share some of this personal data with the student we are matching you with for the purpose of complying with legislation and policies .

All your responses to the expression of interest will be treated in the strictest confidence in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation.

The data you provide will be used for research and quality improvement purposes and the raw data will be seen and processed only by Open University staff. This project is administered under the OU's general data policy guidelines.