This has come up in discussions before so I thought you may be interested to
read this official response from VSO to an email I sent suggesting they may like
to rethink their approach to recruiting at uni careers fairs given that there
are so many mature students and staff who could fit their skills areas.

Dear Alison

Thank you for your email.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.

Over the past decade, the marketing team at VSO has decreased in size, and
continues to do so. We are therefore limited, by staffing numbers, to the types
of activities that we can be involved in. As a team, we are responsible for all
the marketing activities that need to be delivered to recruit the 550+
volunteers we need to recruit from the UK each year. Over time, we have
therefore had to streamline the activities we have delivered and had to focus on
the activities that our delivering the highest numbers of volunteers to us.

I agree with you that universities offer VSO a great opportunity to reach out to
prospective volunteers. We are therefore working with a fantastic team or really
active regional co-ordinators to cover as many of these events as possible. I
believe that our returned volunteers offer people interested in volunteering
overseas a very balanced (an often more interesting) view of what volunteering
with VSO is like compared to members of VSO staff. Where we have active and
interested returned volunteer available to support at these events, I do not
think it makes sense for a member of VSO staff to attend the event as well.

I hope this help you to understand our decision to work through returned
volunteers.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Regards

Reshna

Reshna Radiven
Head of Marketing
VSO, 317 Putney Bridge Road
London SW15 2PN