Volunteer with Pod and enhance your UCAS personal statement

When you apply for university or college place you need to complete a UCAS application which includes a personal statement. It can sometimes be hard to write your own UCAS personal statement as you don’t know what to say or which things to include. However after joining a Pod Volunteer trip overseas students have so many new examples to use about their experiences outside of school, sixth form or college. 

For 2026 applications the personal statement has changed from a single long essay format and will now be in 3 specific sections with each having a direct question to answer. This new structure allows applicants to have a clearer focus to discuss your own achievements, talents, motivations and experiences. 

A strong personal statement allows you to stand out from the crowd so that your chosen universities and colleges can learn more about you and see why you would a great addition to their course. 

The new questions are:

1. Why do you want to study this course or subject?
2. How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course of subject?
3. What else have you done to prepare outside of education and why are these experiences useful? 

There is a minimum count of 350 characters for each question and maximum overall character limit of 4,000 (including spaces) for the 3 questions combined.

A Pod Volunteer trip will allow you to gain lots of examples to use for question 3! 

Joining a Pod trip overseas can allows you to: 

• Live and work outside of your comfort zone in a challenging new environment
• Develop essential qualities such as resilience, empathy and time-keeping
• Show your commitment to learning new skills and giving your time to help
• Develop independence through solo travel and overcoming cultural and language challenges
• Develop confidence and teamwork by working alongside volunteers of different ages and nationalities
• Demonstrate a position of responsibility – e.g. team leader/trainer
• Gain new skills which could be specific to your course (conservation, data research, animal care)
• Explore local sites during your free time which could be connected to your course (temples/ historic interest/markets/national parks) 
• Complete your DofE Gold Residential award whilst volunteering on your Pod trip! 

All these new skills and experiences will allow you to show why you’d make a great student! 

From protecting turtles in Greece, helping rescued wildlife in Thailand to monitoring the Big 5 in South Africa we have to many exciting trips which you can join!

Take your first step to make countless memories, new friends and new skills to help your UCAS personal statement by finding out all about our trip options around the world here: www.podvolunteer.org/projects