Top 5 Benefits of Becoming a Full-Time Officer!
If this year has taught us anything, it’s that 1) time flies by whether you’re having fun or not and 2) if you want to see change happen, you have to be active about it! It's been a tough one for everyone, but students are among the few that have not only felt the detrimental side-effects but have also been blamed for something completely out of their control. This is why standing up for the rights of your community and campaigning for change is so important, and we have just the opportunity for you to do so!
The 2021 Student Officer Elections are fast approaching. Although standing doesn’t open until March, this year has passed in the blink of an eye and we want to make sure that you have all the time you need to campaign for your spot at the top! We have 4 roles that will soon be up for grabs, including:
- President - The President of the Students' Union has a very important role in representing LJMU students to the university. They make sure that students are heard when important, strategic decisions are being made by the university that might affect LJMU students
- VP Education - The Vice President Education works to make teaching, learning and resources at LJMU better for students. They ensure that the university knows what LJMU students need from their education so that LJMU students are getting value for money from their degrees
- VP Activities - The Vice President Activities focuses on working with and developing our student sports clubs and societies. They will spend time with the student groups to understand their needs and help to increase their membership by promoting them widely to students
- VP Community & Wellbeing - The Vice President Community & Wellbeing work to make sure that LJMU students feel happy, healthy and safe during their time at university. They work on improving accommodation, safety and transport and are the face of LJMU students for the local community, local councils and national government
Each one is yours for the taking, if you want it! And there are so many reasons to want it, which brings us to the topic of this week’s post… the top 5 benefits of running in the Full-Time Officer Elections!
Make Long-lasting Change
Perhaps the most rewarding of all benefits, making long-lasting change at this incredible institution! No matter what position you decide to run for, a huge part of your job will be using your student experience and the experiences of other students to inform how you will create a fairer, safer and all-round more comfortable learning environment for future generations of students.
Our present and past Elected Officers have launched some incredible campaigns that have gone on to create long-lasting change here at LJMU, including the Period Poverty campaign which resulted in access to free menstrual hygiene products for all people who menstruate at LJMU, formed the first-ever Attainment Gap Council, tasked to tackle the Attainment Gap between Black and white students, and ran a sustainability week where we ended up declaring a climate emergency and has since resulted in the introduction of our Sustainability Champions!
We couldn’t possibly list every campaign and every positive change that those campaigns have led to here, because our Officers are always hard at work on the next campaign and we’re always hard at work with supporting them! However, just know that whatever change you want to see at LJMU, we’re here to make sure it happens!
Improving the Student Experience
All of the change that you will have the opportunity to make as a Full-Time Officer will be made with one shared goal in mind… improving the experience of all students at LJMU. This is the driving force behind JMSU, and behind the Officer positions that will soon be up for grabs. Part of the reason we have so much success with our Officers is because these roles aren’t for everyone, but for those that care about improving the student experience, these roles are perfect!
Of course, because these roles are so heavily focussed on improving the student experience, this means that a huge part of your job as a Student Officer is talking with the students of the university to find out exactly how this can be done. With over 23,000 students and countless student communities, the list of what can be done to make the university environment more representative of its community is endless! No stress though, you aren’t tasked with handling this all on your own. You have the elected Part-Time Officers and us to help you manage it!
Competitive Salary
Yes, a competitive salary! A job as a Full-Time Officer is a full-time job after all, so of course you will be compensated with a salary and all the benefits that come with working within JMSU! If elected, you will pause your studies for a year and focus solely on elevating the student experience at LJMU, in a paid position that puts you straight into leading a whole organisation. When we say leading, we really mean leading! You will be the strategic decision-maker for the SU, sit on boards with senior LJMU staff, chair committees for campaigns, hold the university to account, and facilitate change from the very top!
Opportunities for paid jobs for students right now are pretty limited, and part of our ethos of supporting students means that you don’t need any previous experience to take on this role, and the salary is comprehensive enough to make sure that you don’t struggle financially while you represent LJMU students.
Prospects with these kinds of benefits and salary are usually tricky to come by for graduates, and even trickier to attain! The 4 roles that we have available, however, are open to every single student at LJMU, no matter what course or level of study. The only students who cannot run are those who have already completed 2 terms! You don’t need any experience; all you need is the passion to create change and to run a successful campaign!
Valuable Experience
With a full-time job and a competitive salary always comes valuable experience! With all the talk that surrounds Elections and the roles, it can be easy to forget that you will still be studying while you take on this job, meaning this is the perfect opportunity to add something to your CV that will set you apart from almost everyone else when it comes to entering the job market post-graduating.
Showing prospective employers that you campaigned for and won a role as a Full-Time Officer and worked within an organisation to improve the student experience will show them that you are serious, experienced and determined to work hard at whatever you set your mind to.
This is all without even mentioning the incredible skills you’ll be able to develop that will really set you apart from the rest, including leadership, effective communication, public speaking and creative thinking. The job market is competitive and is only getting more-so year after year. Trying to find a job is a market that is increasingly relying on skills rather than titles can be tricky, so why not arm yourself with everything you possibly can to improve that employability?
Networking
Going hand-in-hand with the opportunity to gain experience and improve your skills is the opportunity to meet some incredible people that you otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet! We all know the old saying ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ and we’d say that actually, it’s both! We can’t underestimate the importance of building a solid network for securing that dream job, and a job as a Student Officer could be the best way to lay the foundations.
As a Full-Time Officer not only do you have meetings with people from across the university, you also have the opportunity to build some really meaningful relationships with businesses and organisations across Liverpool that will undoubtedly continue after you graduate and take those first steps on your career path! Our current Officers have been able to build relationships with people from local charities, creatives, MPs and councils that if nurtured could open all kinds of doors for you in the future.
Convinced yet? There’s no denying that the job of a Full-Time Officer is a tough one, but there’s also no denying that it’s a rewarding one that offers some incredible benefits! So many benefits, in fact, that we just wrote an entire essay about it and could easily keep going! Don’t worry though, you’ve got the main ones.
If you’re interested in becoming a Full-Time Officer, we’re encouraging you to register your interest with us today. This is super easy to do, and there are no obligations. All you have to do is register your interest here and a member of our team will be in touch for a super chilled chat at a time that suits you!
Unsure which of the 4 roles you’d be best suited for? Take our quiz below to find out!
