Julia Hewitt

Originally attending, what was then, Bolton Institute of Higher Education in the late 1980s, Julia first studied Computing, gaining distinctions in Programming and Quantitative Methodology before going on to take a Cert Ed, allowing her to teach in Further Education.

More recently, she returned to the University of Bolton in 2005 to study for a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing and a Postgraduate Certificate in Children’s Literature and Culture during which time she also gained employment in the university (first as a temporary assistant in the Library and then in the Careers department).

As Volunteering Coordinator, Julia brings more than twenty years’ diverse experience in teaching, tutoring, providing guidance and facilitating learning in both Further and Higher Education to her role.

During her working life, she has often had special responsibility for young learners (aged 14-19), students with mental health and students with additional needs. She has worked with young people with challenging behaviours, both in the classroom and during field excursions, helping them to develop personal, social and technical skills which further equip them to cope with the demands of study and future employment.

This has led to her further involvement with the agencies and charities that support access to and facilitate learning for all, both as a volunteer herself and through encouraging others to become involved.

In her current role, she is part of Bolton CVS’ Volunteering Coordinators’ Forum, regularly meeting with and connecting with local charities and volunteer-involving organisations to raise awareness of their work and to recruit potential volunteers from amongst the student body.

She considers volunteering to be of immense value to the volunteer as well as those they work with and encourages students to consider a variety of different options that may not be of immediate relevance to their studies. She believes that volunteering helps students to gain confidence, make friends, feel needed, be part of something as well as helping them develop a number of those, widely discussed, transferable skills which will stand them in such good stead in their future forays into the minefield that is today’s job market.

Treating each student as an individual, she works with them to develop personal action plans, helping them to identify skills they wish to gain or develop and ways in which this can be achieved.