The Sabbatical Officer roles are full-time, paid opportunities. If you are successfully elected as part of the Sabbatical Officer team you can expect to earn a salary of over £21,000 and gain a huge amount of experience, across multiple disciplines, in a truly unique role.
As a full-time role, this is not a job that you can undertake alongside your studies. Some Sabbatical Officers have run in the Elections in their last year of University, others (like Hadiza) decide to take a year out and gain experience in a professional environment before continuing their studies.
If you're interested in one of these roles and want to find out more, or have any questions, then come along to our last Thinking of Running session on Tuesday 1st February which will be hosted via Zoom.
Find out what Hadiza is up to now following her year in the Students' Union before continuing and ultimately graduating from her studies.
What’s your name, what was your role and when were you in the position?
Hi everybody, my name is Hadiza Adah and I was Vice President International and Outreach within the 2017 - 2018 academic session at the Students' Union.
There is no longer a VP International & Outreach role on the Sabbatical Officer team, but if you're interested in representing students' interests in relation to support services, equality and diversity then find out more about the VP Wellbeing & Diversity role here.
What did you study?
Whilst I was at the University of Plymouth I studied law, however, in my second year, I took a gap year to run to be a Sabbatical Officer and work within the Students’ Union.
Why did you nominate yourself/why did a friend nominate you?
I really wanted to create the change I wanted to see within the University and within my Students' Union. So, whilst I was talking with a group of friends, they actually said “okay, you know what, you should do this, if you're interested in this, you should put yourself forward”. So I nominated myself and I would say it was one of the best decisions I have made so far because I was able to do things I was really passionate about and create the change that I wanted to see around me.
What are you doing now?
Right now, I work as an Indirect Tax Advisor at KPMG.
What skills from this role helped you get to where you are now?
I would say that I have actually used a lot of skills that I gained whilst working at the Students' Union, the most important being communication and team working skills. I know obviously, you do a lot of these things within your course - however, actually doing them, like actually working in a real life situation and doing them whilst in the job was really important for me. It was a learning curve for me, and obviously, I'm very grateful for it because it's something that I use daily now, dealing with different stakeholders or different groups of people and understanding how best to engage with them.
What was the most interesting part of your role as a Sabbatical Officer?
I would say the most interesting part of my role, or something I really enjoyed was being a trustee of the Students’ Union, I absolutely enjoyed that. I also enjoyed curating campaigns with the groups of students that I worked with, creating it from the inception, or when the campaign is just an idea, to actually working through to its completion. Those were very interesting, I got to meet a lot of people and connect with a lot of diverse people like myself, so that was quite interesting.
What advice would you give someone who is studying at the University of Plymouth who is thinking of running?
I would say to anybody who's thinking of running now, absolutely do it. Put yourself forward and don't look back, because this could be one of the best decisions you could make for yourself. You get to meet so many interesting people along the line and you get to put yourself forward for something that you're passionate in. So when you get the role you would be working on something you're passionate in and you would be you'll be working with people who go from strangers to lifelong friends.
Nominate yourself now! Suggest a Student
Nominations are open until midday on Friday 4th February. For an informal chat about any of the four roles come along to our Thinking of Running session or get in touch with the Student Voice team here