You are here: — Home

• Welcome to the Degree Ceremony Volunteer Training Pack
• Volunteering with OUSA
• Introducing O U Students Association Services Limited (O S L)
• Audio-visual material within this package

Welcome to the Degree Ceremony Volunteer Training Pack

Welcome to the Degree Ceremony online training package for OUSA Representatives and thank you for volunteering. This package is for those OUSA volunteers who are to receive training to work on the OUSA stall at the University's annual Degree Ceremonies. OUSA has a presence at these events and we use this as an opportunity to market OUSA (and the service it provides to students) and market O U branded commemorative goods to visiting graduates and their family and friends.

Volunteering with OUSA

OUSA sees these ceremonies as very important for the promotion of the OUSA image with both continuing students and the Open University. For the graduates attending their ceremonies this event usually marks the end of many years of hard work and dedication and those graduating deserve a special day. They will feel proud of their University and want to show it off as a model organisation to their friends and family. To this end, and to help you give as professional service as possible, we have put together this pack of information to help you prepare for the event. Please do find time to read through the material here to become familiar with the items for sale on the day, and the various procedures that you might have to follow. We really appreciate that you have volunteered to help with this event that will undoubtedly be hard work, but which we hope will also bring you and those you serve much pleasure.

There are a number of aspects involved with training and this package will hopefully provide you with the support you require. Through the use of video, audio, pictures and various electronically provided guidelines, this package will help to train volunteers in the art of setting up a display stall, how to deal with customers, learn basic product knowledge, and how to take payments with electronic point of sale terminals. If at any moment you are unsure of any aspect of the training, please refer to the contacts provided in the 'Contacts and Other Representatives' section of this website. Please note that you will not be expected to handle a stall all by yourself, as there will be other experienced volunteers with whom you'll be working alongside.

Introducing O U Students Association Services Limited (O S L)

OUSA Services Limited is the wholly owned, private limited company of the Open University Students Association. Its primary purpose is to provide goods and services to O U students. As well as our range of past exam papers, we offer a wide selection of study aids, practical merchandise and high quality memorabilia. As we are the only organisation permitted by the Open University to use their coat of arms and logo for commercial purposes, we also aim to offer a service to the whole O U community - students, staff, alumni and their family and friends.

Our aim is to offer value for money coupled with an efficient and friendly service. O S L also makes a major contribution to OUSA's registered charity OUSET, which raises money to help fund low income students. As well as encouraging our customers to consider a donation to OUSET when purchasing goods and services, profits are covenanted to OUSA which, in turn, donates these to OUSET.

Audio-visual material within this package

This site contains a number of audio and video clips. For each file, captions are available. The audio files will normally play in your default player, Windows Media Player, unless you have other players (e.g. Quicktime) installed and configured to be your default player. However, if you are viewing through a browser other than Internet Explorer, you may be prompted to download additional plug-ins. For video files, you will require Macromedia Flash Player. If this is not already installed on your computer, you will be prompted by the following "Content on this page requires a newer version of Macromedia Flash Player. Do you want to download it now?" when you attempt to open the files. You can follow the link and subsequent instructions, or alternatively, you can follow the link below to the O U's online software download page and install Flash, as well as other software (i.e. DirectX and Macromedia Shockwave) to assist in media viewing.