Volunteer
One of the major aims of the partnership between The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL) and Reading Museum is to offer volunteering opportunities to the local community to improve wellbeing, connect people to their personal histories and identities, and get to know more about Reading’s rich cultural heritage. We love working with volunteers and people love volunteering with us.
Volunteers are a vital part of Museums Partnership Reading, an Arts Council England funded partnership between The MERL and Reading Museum.
How volunteers help us
Our roles are varied and well-supported, and volunteers come from a wide range of backgrounds. We aim to reflect the diverse community of Reading.
Volunteers help us in lots of ways to help us connect more people to our collections and events, and we’re dedicated to giving volunteers the best experience possible.
We are accredited by Investing in Volunteers, the UK quality standard for good practice in volunteer management.
What’s in it for you?
Volunteers tell us they:
- meet new people and feel part of a team
- get a chance to dig deeper into their hobby or interest
- gain experience in the workplace while developing transferable skills to enhance a CV
- enhance their wellbeing
- improve their confidence
- enjoy giving back to the community
What roles can I apply for?
You can browse a complete list of all volunteering roles on our ‘My Impact’ volunteering platform.
If we have a vacancy for a role, it will say *Now recruiting* next to the title of the role.
We are lucky enough to receive a high volume of volunteer applications. Please tell us clearly in your application form answers how you feel you meet the requirements of the volunteering role, and how you would like to help. The more we know about you and what you are interested in, the easier it is for us to match you.
It is quite common that more volunteers apply for the role than we have opportunity for in the rota. In this situation, the application form answers will be used if we need to shortlist from a larger group of applicants.
How to apply to volunteer for Museums Partnership Reading
To submit your volunteer application, follow this link to our volunteering platform.
Please note that if you open the platform using a smartphone or iPad/ tablet, look for the banner at the top of the page and click on the link where it says – ‘It looks like you are on a mobile device. For a better experience on smartphones, go to Mobile Application Form.’
When you are happy with your application, please don’t forget to click SUBMIT – otherwise we will never receive the form!
If you need any help with the application process, please email VolunteerHQ@reading.ac.uk and we will do our best to help. A hard copy version of the application form is available if you are not confident in using computers or have limited digital access.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Volunteer HQ
Data collection and processing is in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016, and the Data Protection Act 2018, and in line with our Privacy Policy.