Green Impact Project Assistants
What are GIPAs?
Green Impact Project Assistants are students who have volunteered to be trained by the NUS to help assigned teams complete their workbooks. GIPAs can decide their specific roles in agreement with their teams by thinking about what they want from the role. They can organise meetings and help allocate categories of actions to specific people on the team; they can complete the workbook to help alleviate the pressures on staff time; they can plan events or ideas to apply for the Special Innovation or Energy-Saving Idea awards; or they can simply help the team carry out the actions in the workbook.
What do students get from the role?
It's safe to say that employers are becoming more and more aware of the importance of environmental awareness. Being a GIPA gives students invaluable experience in environmental policy and actions in the workplace. Not only that, the NUS offers workshops to help develop employable skills and they get awarded certificates at the end of their role. They can then be signed up to the Change Agents UK website, which advertises graduate jobs in the conservation and environmental sector, and they receive letters of recommendation. What's more, the GIPA role is one of many extra-curricular activities and awards that the University can include in your Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) – a new and comprehensive record of your university achievements, which recognises extra-curricular achievement as well as academic learning. Further information about the HEAR can be found at www.sheffield.ac.uk/ssid/hear.
How much time are students expected to dedicate to the scheme?
The contract asks students to dedicate a minimum of 1 hour and a maximum of 5 hours per week, on average. However, if students feel that they want to dedicate more time, then they can do at their discretion and in agreement with their team.
Students : How do I apply?
Students can download the following documents:
How do departments sign up for a GIPA?
Just contact us. Students are hired at the beginning of the scheme and have to attend an induction session and the Sustainability Skills training programme (currently in development).
