WRO teams need a responsible adult who must be at least 18 years old. Generally this will be supporting young people from organisations that you already know e.g. STEM Club, school. The role of a coach is to support the teams, give guidance and help with practical matters like transport to events, but not do the work for them.

If you have the technical knowledge you can offer to be a mentor where you provide some guidance e.g. on how to build or programme the robots. This can be done remotely. As with coaching you cannot do the work for the team.

The requirements for judging will depend upon the competition category but there will usually be judges, senior judges and head judges depending upon the level of experience.

You can volunteer at a regional event and/or the National Finals.

If you wish you can also volunteer to support the International Finals

Even the smallest competition events benefit from volunteers who can help out and ensure everything happens when it is supposed to do so and the participants need to be in the right places at the right time.

Where necessary, volunteers will be required to have a DBS or equivalent check.

We recommend that all those wishing to volunteer should sign up as STEM Ambassadors, as many schools will want to check your DBS status before allowing you on the premises.

Sign up as a STEM Ambassador here.

Click here for information about DBS requirements.

Please be aware that, because 2025 is our first year, we are unlikely to be able to offer volunteer expenses

STEMpura have a handbook for volunteers that can be read here