Volunteering opportunities

Current opportunities

Each specialist group, sub-group, and branch is managed by a dedicated committee of enthusiastic volunteer members. They generously share their time and expertise to help the profession grow and advance through education, networking, resource development and representing the profession. 

There are many ways for you to get involved and become a part of your professional community. Check out the opportunities below to see how you can join in!

Why volunteer?

With busy lives, it can be tempting not to make the time to give something back but you, and your employer, can gain significant benefits from volunteering with the BDA. The right opportunity can help you find new contacts and friends, learn new skills and even advance your career.

There are a number of benefits to getting involved with your specialist group, sub group or branch committee including:

• Develop valuable job skills – volunteering is a great way to discover something that you are really good at and also develop new skills. Many roles offer the opportunity to gain career enhancing skills, such as leadership, project management, marketing, and negotiating and finance management. We also offer formal training for some roles
• Make new contacts and friends – volunteering gives you the opportunity to broaden your networks and can expose you to new friends who have common interests. It is also a fantastic opportunity to meet new people who may become future colleagues or mentors. Many committee members also find it fun and make great friends!
• Develop the profession – working as part of a committee team, you are leading and ensuring the provision of CPD, providing vital opportunities for dietitians to network and offering them the opportunity to hear updates and best practice in a wide variety of different areas. This is contributing to the development and advancement of the profession and ultimately driving demand for dietetics.

It’s never too early to engage with the dietetic community outside of university. It can be a hugely daunting prospect as it’s easy to imagine your contribution or voice will be ill-received because of lack of experience. 

The Obesity Specialist Group nominated me for the Student Champion award, which has shown me how valued and appreciated all voices and continuations are - and how open other RDs are to encouraging the development of the next generation, outside of an education setting. I hope it will inspire other students to get involved in specialist groups and other non-university opportunities.

Linsey Cockburn, 2021 Student Champion & Obesity Specialist Group Committee Member

Discover how you can get involved in a number of interesting volunteering opportunities with the BDA, you'll learn new transferable skills, meet new people, add to your CPD and advance your profession!

Become a Writer or Reviewer

Do you have an interest in writing or reviewing?  If so, why not think about volunteering your time for the BDA in a writer or reviewer role? Check out the different opportunities for you to put your skills into practice.

Become a Trade Union Representative

In order to operate effectively as your Union, we rely on member volunteers to give their time and effort to become a Trade Union Representative. This vital network of Union representatives receive BDA expert training to be able to help and support you; their dietetic colleagues, correctly in the workplace.

Meet our Volunteers

We showcase and highlight the range of volunteer roles and activities our members undertake, and say thank you for the fantastic contribution they make to advancing the profession in our monthly Volunteer Corner section of the official BDA member magazine Dietetics Today.