Intern volunteer roles

Are you looking to build experience in communications while supporting children’s education in Malawi?

The Mlambe Project is a small but impactful charity building sustainably constructed school blocks in rural Malawi. We’re looking for a volunteer Communications & Social Media Intern to help us share our story and grow our online presence — all in just around one hour per week.

What you’ll do:

• Create and schedule engaging social media posts and update website
• Help tell the story of our school building projects and the people we work with
• Share updates, photos and impact stories
• Suggest ideas to grow awareness and engagement
• Support the team in Malawi to take engaging content

Who this would suit:

• Students or recent graduates
• Anyone wanting experience in the charity or international development sector
• Creative self-starters who enjoy writing and storytelling

Why volunteer with us?

• Gain real, hands-on experience
• Build your CV and portfolio
• Work flexibly around your schedule
• Contribute directly to improving education access for children in Malawi

This is a small time commitment with meaningful impact.

If you’d like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch with a short introduction about yourself and why you’re interested.

Starfish is an international development charity aiming to bring life, hope and opportunity to children in South Africa who have been orphaned or made vulnerable through HIV/AIDS and poverty. Starfish are looking for an enthusiastic person who is passionate about international development with good writing skills. The internship will be varied and include: researching trusts and foundations, writing applications, sending out applications & reports, managing data, and supporting event preparations. The Starfish UK London office is small and therefore you will become very much part of the team, being able to experience the operations of a dynamic international charity. This is a great opportunity to gain invaluable experience and enhance your CV. Desired experience - Use of Microsoft packages, organisational skills, good communication skills, research skills and the ability to work well in a team. Role starting February 2026. 

This position is for minimum 3 days a week, working from home with a March event in central London. 

Who we are

Travel Radar provides high quality and relevant industry insight across the Commercial Aviation 

& Air-Travel sectors. Having grown rapidly since 2015, we've gone on to become one of the 

leading providers of Aviation News available online, and in 2023 are expanding to become the 

leading digital hub for all things aviation and air-travel. With an ever-growing remote team of 

over 100 staff, we bring exciting and interesting content 24/7 from around the globe to a reach 

of over 30 million users per month.

Our mission to change how travel is seen, involves showing people how to make their journeys as 

fulfilling as possible through providing the latest news and how to improve journey quality. This 

is supplemented with providing the industry with leading edge visual content, data and job-aggregation. It’s an exciting time to become a part of Travel Radar.

What you’ll be doing

We’re on the lookout for a Social Media Intern to join our high-performance Social Media Team. Some of the things you’ll be doing week-to-week includes:

• Assisting creating creative and engaging social media strategies for our platforms, 

and enacting them day to day

• Managing the day-to-day posting of a particular social media channel such as 

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok and LinkedIn

• Planning and delivering content across different platforms using scheduling tools 

such as Buffer and/or Meta Business Suite

• Assisting to develop, launch and manage new competitions and campaigns that 

promote Travel Radar and the brand

• Forming key relationships with influencers in the aviation and air-travel space across 

your particular social media platform

• Managing and facilitating social media communities by responding to social media 

posts and developing discussions, including direct messages and mentions/@’s

• Researching and evaluating the latest trends, techniques and algorithm changes in 

order to find new and better ways of creating and measuring social media activity

What skills and experience you’ll bring to us

We’re all about learning and development here at Travel Radar, so we don’t expect you to know everything to apply to us! Whether you’re an undergraduate looking to gain real-world experience, a graduate looking for their first opportunity, or a seasoned professional wanting to change careers or step into management, we will support you in your journey.

Here are some of the skills that’ll be required, and some that’ll be beneficial to have:

Skill Required? Beneficial?

Proven social media or content curation experience (Required)

A passion for aviation or wider travel industry (Beneficial)

Ability to schedule content weekly (Required)

IT proficiency – ideally with Buffer/Hootsuite knowledge (Beneficial)

Strong content curation skills including Canva/Graphic Design (Beneficial)

Knowledge of data analysis and social media analytics (Beneficial)

Expert knowledge in one or more social media platforms (Beneficial)

Misc.

Reports to: Social Media Manager

Hours per Week: 10hrs/week

Regardless to your background, if this sounds like a good fit, we'd love to hear from you!

Please Note: This role is voluntary (not paid). Personal range of perks to benefit from:

Range of Perks to Benefit

�� Unlimited Leave of Absence and flexible workload

�� Flexible working arrangements - fully remote position

�� Lunch & Travel Expenses covered for physical working

✈ Discount Program with 3000 retailers from travel to shopping to car insurance

��Physical and Mental Wellbeing Support

�� Great Training and Learning Resources

�� Press Pass to attend events, conferences and airshows free

�� Latest Tech including free Office365, Grammarly Premium, Adobe Photoshop and Canva Pro subscription and access to company laptop/desktops and Virtual Machines

JOB DESCRIPTION

The National Institute for African Studies (NIAS) is a London-based think tank that provides objective information on African affairs, looking to appoint a Research & Publishing Intern within its office in South West, London. Our main publication, The Saharan is an interdisciplinary journal published by NIAS aimed at exploring the dynamic relationship between culture and development in Africa/UK.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

- Support the editors in the sourcing & production of blog and journal publications

- Checking material for completeness, copy-edit and check appropriate non-technical material such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter updates

- Generate, check and correct files with names, contact information, number of articles, review assessments, and consent forms.

- Serve as a custodian of approved originals of all documentation produced for The Saharan journal

- Use NIAS LinkedIn account to connect to academics and groups to promote the journal, acquire papers, and attract skilled scholars to become reviewers

- Coordinate the publication flow of the journal and all stages of the editorial processes upon the release of each issue

- Review and adjust publications according to the style of the journal, ensuring the correct usage of references and plagiarism checking

- Update wordpress website and a range of social media accounts with news, updates and promotions

THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE MUST:

- Have a minimum of undergraduate degree

- Excellent knowledge of MS Office applications

- Good knowledge of wordpress, crm, social media tools

- Demonstrate excellent editorial and administrative skills together with high attention to detail

- Ability to work under pressure to tight schedules and deadlines

TO APPLY:

- CV

- Covering Letter

- Official transcript(s) of universities attended

- Contact information for two referees (email and telephone preferably from both universities and workplaces)

The position is based in London, UK. Only candidates who already possess the right to work in the UK should apply. The contract is for three months with a probation period of six weeks, extendable upon agreement and contingent on a continued volunteer/paid position.

Candidates should send a covering letter explaining the skills they would offer to NIAS, attaching a CV and a list of referees. The deadline for this round of application is 30 April. Due to the high number of applicants, only those selected will be contacted.

Flexible Working Options Available:

• Flexitime
• Work from home/university
• Part-time

Job Types: Volunteer, Internship

Benefits:

• Travel Expenses, Flexitime
• Support with relevant training
• Career Mentorship
• Sponsored attendance/Presentation at cultural events, conferences, seminars

Education:

•  BSc. and equivalent or higher (required)

Experience:

• Publishing: 1 year (preferred)
• Research 1 year (preferred)

Work authorisation:

• United Kingdom (required)

Purpose of the role
In this important role, you will be responsible for assessing the eligibility of applicants for our grants and services, in adherence with Variety’s structured grant management approach (guided interviews, weighted scoring and panel review) to maximise impact for disabled and disadvantaged children and young people.

You will be required to handle grant applications and supporting information with the utmost confidentiality, following organisational policies to ensure the privacy and security of all sensitive and personal information.

Using our defined eligibility criteria and assessment tools, you will evaluate applications and conduct fair and consistent assessments, making award recommendations to support the decision-making process. You will bring an independent voice, playing a key role in ensuring that decisions are made fairly, equitably and transparently and will be required to support your recommendations with evidence of sound analysis and reasoning.

Key Responsibilities
• Review applications and supporting evidence prepared by the case management team.
• Clarify points with applicants when required (within agreed boundaries).
• Conduct structured, remote assessments (by telephone/video call) to understand need, urgency and likely impact on the child, their family life and communities.
• Establish the baseline for monitoring and evaluation by articulating the impact of the intervention.
• Where applicable, use the weighted assessment tool (base on the eligibility criteria and the Theory of Change) consistently and document clear, impartial rationales to prioritise need.
• Prepare concise, written recommendations aligned to policy, criteria and evidence.
• Attend quarterly Assessor Network meetings, which are a forum for sharing good practice, peer support, news sharing, undertaking essential training and reward and recognition.

Optional, Additional Responsibilities
• Where applicable, support the Impact Monitoring and Evaluation team to undertake post-award follow-up interviews to measure the impact made over time.
• Where applicable and available, represent Variety at events, presentations of awards and through online content.

Adherence to Policy and Quality
• Act as a beacon of good practice in fair grant assessment.
• Uphold safeguarding, confidentiality, GDPR, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and anti‑bias standards throughout the assessment process.
• Escalate concerns (quality, safeguarding, unusual risk, conflicts of interest) in line with policy.
• Follow process controls and segregation of roles, supporting a robust, auditable trail.
• Participate in induction, refresher training, and calibration sessions to ensure consistency and continuous improvement.
• Adhere to Variety’s Code of Conduct.

Time Commitment
• Assessments: the time commitment for these varies and is flexible but we expect you will be spending 4 – 8 hours per month on these, dependent on demand and pool of assessors.
• Assessor Network: hybrid meetings that will last 1.5 – 2 hours and will be held quarterly.
• Training: short modular induction plus periodic refreshers usually rolled into Assessor Network meetings.

Support & Supervision
• Induction & training: policy, criteria, assessment skills, impact tools, safeguarding, data protection.
• Ongoing support through Programme Manager, Programmes Support Officer and Head of Programmes.
• Expenses: out‑of‑pocket expenses will be reimbursed in line with Variety’s Expenses Policy.

Impact Measures (Volunteer‑Appropriate)
• Timely completion of assigned assessments; adherence to guidance and safeguarding.
• Quality of written rationales; consistency of weighted scoring.
• Constructive contribution to committee discussion and calibration.
• Positive feedback from applicants (tone/respect) gathered via staff.
• Case study preparation

Person Specification
We welcome people from many walks of life. If you’re feel that you are the right person for this role but are unsure whether you “tick every box,” please still consider applying; training and support are provided.
What you’ll bring (essential)
• Fair assessment mindset: you can weigh information against clear criteria and explain your reasoning.
• Analysis skills: comfortable reviewing forms/evidence and using a simple scoring tool. Able to summarise and analyse complex information to extract relevant data, paying attention to detail.
• Communication: great written and spoken English (we have templates to help).
• Lived experience or insight: personal, professional or volunteer experience that helps you understand the challenges faced by disabled or disadvantaged children and young people (or you can demonstrate thoughtful knowledge of these issues).
• Friendly and approachable: comfortable conducting sensitive conversations by telephone/video call with empathy and professionalism.
• Reliability and care: you follow guidance, meet agreed timeframes where you can, and ask for help if something isn’t clear.
• Values & conduct: commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion; willing to complete safeguarding training and a DBS check.

Helpful extras (nice to have, but not essential)
• Comfortable using basic digital tools (email, online forms, video calls) – we can show you the rest.
• Experience in any of the following is desirable:
o Grant-making
o Community/children’s services
o Health/education/SEND
o Occupational Therapy
o Social care
o Structured interviewing
o Teaching