These are some courses that we believe are essential to your role as a PDSA Retail volunteer. You will need to complete all of these courses as part of your training as they will make sure you are aware of the important things to consider when volunteering. 

Want to know all the basic information about volunteering with us? This guide has all the important information in one place, and will provide you with information required to ensure you get the most out of your volunteering experience with PDSA, covering the following topics:

  • Welcome to PDSA
  • Introduction to PDSA
  • Getting the most out of volunteering with PDSA
  • Additional Information
  • Health and Safety
  • Volunteer Agreement


This handbook forms part of the Induction process to introduce retail volunteers to the processes and procedures in place at our shops.

The content covers:

  • Introduction to the shop
  • Stock Processing
  • In the shop floor
  • On the till and Gift Aid
  • Items we can not sell
  • Cash Handling
  • Gift Aid
  • Smoking and Vaping

This is the basic safeguarding induction course for all volunteers at PDSA. It covers sensitive topics, seek support from your manager if needed. Support available is listed at the end of the video. It takes about 17 minutes to watch the video.


Most of us handle personal information as part of our volunteering, whether it's about customers, clients, other volunteers or members of the public.

We live in a world full of data, where finding answers to nearly any question is a simple Internet search, where sharing personal details with strangers on social media is commonplace, and where businesses can build detailed profiles about individuals for a variety of purposes.

But what about those individuals’ privacy? How can data be used and still be protected?

We want to make sure you are trained in the principles and practices of GDPR so this course provides information and training for you to understand our responsibility to keep personal data safe and secure and process it in line with GDPR legislation.