Employment and Empowerment
We work with people facing a range of barriers to help them back into learning and employment.
Work Experience
We work closely with third sector partners to offer volunteering and work experience opportunities to people who face barriers to employment.
You can read some blog posts from some of our recent volunteers:
The History of Access to the University (Ash)
Witches in the School of Scottish Studies Sound Archives (Nicole)
The University of Edinburgh Art Collection: Irene G. Thomson, Anne Marie Gilmore and Gwen Hardie (Ash)
Wikipedia Volunteering Programme
Our Wikipedia Volunteering Programme has been running since 2021 in partnership with Access to Industry's Access Data programme. Students from the programme are trained in editing Wikipedia and then use their skills to add information and images from our collections to Wikipedia and bring information about our collections to a wider audience.
Examples of pages worked on by our volunteers include:
HMP Learning Programmes
In 2023, in partnership with Fife College, we piloted eight and ten week learning programmes in HMP & YOI Polmont and HMP Perth respectively. Topics ranged across our collections and included sessions on famous alumni and inventions of the university, 3D printing and decorated papers, plus many more. We look forward to continuing these partnerships in 2024.
Hear from some of our participants and partners in our video:
- Video: Employment and Empowerment at the University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections
- Hear from some of the people involved in our employment and empowerment projects at the University of Edinburgh's Heritage Collections, including the Recovery through Music project and the Access Data project at Access to Industry.