Our volunteers are ordinary people from all walks of life, many of whom help us to deliver free, confidential, impartial and independent advice and information on a wide range of subjects to Manchester residents. Other volunteers come to us because they have a particular skill they would like to put to good use. For example IT, research, fundraising, web design or social media marketing. Some volunteers prefer the social side of volunteering and support us at events where we meet the public and raise awareness of our services and relevant issues. Whoever you are, and whatever your passion, we might have a role for you!

We generally recruit volunteers to help us deliver our Tier One advice service. This means you would be acting as the first point of contact for clients across Manchester. In this role you would give initial advice to clients around benefits, debt, housing, employment or consumer issues. From here you can develop even further and look to undertake our nationally recognised Citizens Advice Adviser Learning Programme.

If this doesn’t appeal to you, but you think your time and skills would be of value to the service, then please do get in touch as there may be other opportunities to get involved.

No, not at all. Being the right type of person is all that matters to us. We are looking for ordinary, approachable and friendly people who are non-judgemental and are empathetic to the needs and issues of our clients.

Our volunteers undertake a minimum of one day per week. This will usually need to be the same day every week. All shifts are carried out between the hours of 9.00am - 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday, however we are more than willing to be flexible around start and finish times where people have caring/childcare responsibilities. We don’t currently operate any services during evenings or weekends. We ask that volunteers commit to a minimum period of six (6) months.

When we have volunteer vacancies we will post them on our website along with a link to our (basic) application form. If we are not currently recruiting, we will have a link to our mailing list which you can sign up to in order to be notified of any vacancies.

When you apply we will acknowledge your application and invite you to one of our information sessions. During the session we provide further information about the service and discuss both what we expect and what you can gain from volunteering with Citizens Advice Manchester. As part of the session we work on a number of short activities which are designed to assess how you engage with other people as this is a major part of the role. The session is designed to help you, and us, carefully consider if you would be happy as a Citizens Advice Manchester volunteer.

We follow up the information session by interviewing successful candidates. Because we have already met you, our interviews are relatively short and usually only last around 15 minutes. Wherever possible, we try to hold these interviews over the telephone to avoid people having to travel into the city centre However, we are happy to arrange face to face interviews where this might cause difficulties. The interview itself will be informal and you will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Our training is geared towards helping you be as successful as possible in your role. There is a mix of self study, E-learning, face to face courses and shadowing experienced advisers. Throughout your training, you will be supported by your supervisor and our Training and Development Lead.

Of course! Citizens Advice Manchester practices and promotes equality of opportunity in volunteering. That means we make sure that all potential volunteers, whatever they have to offer, will be welcomed. We strive to meet the additional needs of disabled staff, arising either directly or indirectly out of their volunteer work. Our aim is to enable all our volunteers to make their distinctive contribution to the benefit of our clients. If you have a disability that might prevent you from fully participating in our recruitment process, please let us know in your application and we will endeavour to make reasonable adjustments to ensure your comfort.

If you are confident that you can meet the time commitment, are non-judgemental and reliable and you would like to be considered for a role, please complete our online form. We aim to acknowledge all enquiries within 48 (working) hours but please note that this may take longer during busy periods.