Getting involved as a PASS Leader

Your Role and Our Expectations

As a PASS Leader, you will be one of the first points of contact for first-year students within your discipline. You will play a key role in helping first-year students adjust to university life by sharing your experiences, offering advice and directing them to relevant services and support. Planning and running weekly PASS sessions with your Attendees and keeping contact between sessions is also an important part of your role. It is important to note that your role will involve facilitated learning and not teaching your Attendees.

To fully prepare you for your role, you will be required to attend 3 Training sessions before your first meeting with your Attendees. The training is designed to provide you with the necessary skills and materials which you will need to be an effective PASS Leader. Firstly, the Intro to PASS online module, then a PASS in Practice session, and a Meet Your Scheme session. The final session is scheme specific and it is run by the Student Coordinators, Staff Coordinators and the Lead Contact Officer. It aims to help you to think about events that your scheme can run to benefit your mentees.  

PASS Leaders are also expected to attend Debriefs with their scheme. These sessions provide a chance to network with fellow PASS Leaders, exchange good practice and provide feedback to your coordination team (Student Coordinators, Staff Coordinators and your Lead Contact Officer).  

Being a PASS Leader

You will have certain tasks that you need to complete to ensure the effective running of your scheme, but this is paired with the freedom to be creative and inventive. Indeed, some of the most successful PASS Leaders to date have been those who have really put in time and effort into thinking up new and interesting ways to enhance the experience of students on their course.

PASS Leaders are key to maintain the ‘discipline-owned and student-led’ nature of your PASS scheme. Working closely with the Staff Coordinators, Student Coordinators and the Student Engagement team, PASS Leaders help to ensure the smooth running, maintenance and development of your scheme.

Support in Your Role

During your time as a PASS Leader, you will be fully supported by your Student Coordinators, Staff Coordinators and your Student Engagement Intern. It is therefore essential that you maintain regular contact with them through email and by attending Debriefs.

Additionally, over the course of the academic year, PASS Leaders are provided with numerous opportunities for additional workshops and development activities which are advertised exclusively to students involved in Peer Support. 

What training is required of a student wishing to be a PASS Leader?

There are three training sessions which you must complete to be a PASS Leader, the first two Intro to PASS (1.5 hours) and PASS in Practise (6 hours) are mixed discipline and are which is led by a Student Engagement (Peer Support) Intern, these also have a short Blackboard course you must complete for each. Following this is a two hour session called "PASS in Your Discipline" which is led by a Student Engagement (Peer Support) Intern and your student coordinators. Staff coordinators will also be in attendance at the PASS in Your Discipline session. All of these training sessions are compulsory for students wishing to become PASS Leaders for their scheme.

Can any of our PASS Leaders continue in their role if they so wish and do they have to complete training again?

Of course, any PASS Leader can return to their role. They will not need to complete the first two training sessions (Intro to PASS or PASS in Practise) again but they will need to attend "PASS in your Discipline", which is run by a Student Engagement (Peer Support) Intern and the scheme's Staff & Student Coordinators towards the end of Semester 2/ September.

Our scheme has students who would like to be PASS Leaders that are on placements in industry or abroad. What happens here?

This is absolutely fine. They will need to commit to completing their training as soon as they can upon returning in September. Training must be completed before they are allocated a group of Attendees.

Does training have to be completed in a certain order or by a certain time?

Yes. Students must complete training in this order: Intro to PASS (face to face), Intro to PASS (online content), PASS in Practise (face to face), PASS in Practise (online content) then PASS in Your Discipline. The vast majority of PASS Leaders will be trained before the summer. Any students on placements will be trained during "catch-up" sessions in September.

Can we recruit more/fewer PASS Leaders than we have had in previous years?

Of course. The number of PASS Leaders a scheme needs to have is dependent on the size of your first-year cohort. We recommend a minimum of 2 PASS Leaders per group of 6-15 first year students. The Student Engagement (Peer Support) Interns are always happy to advise you on this.