City education officials are urging volunteers to come forward and fill more than 1,000 school governor vacancies in Birmingham.

The School Governors' One Stop Shop - SGOSS - has been working in partnership with Birmingham LEA to find willing members of the public and match them with schools in the region that are in need of new governors.

The organisations have been contacting local businesses and are running a bus advertising campaign throughout Birmingham.

Stephen Edmonds, Birmingham LEA's assistant governor services manager, said there was a shortage of both parent and community governors in the city.

Parent governors are elected by other parents at the school, while community governors are elected by the governing body for their particular skills or as representatives of the wider community in which the school is based.

Mr Edmonds said: "We have just over 6,000 governor positions in Birmingham and at the moment, just over 1,000 of these are vacant. Now is the new school year so slowly we will see that figure come down.

"There are 294 positions vacant for community governors in Birmingham and 336 in the parent governor category."

Mr Edmonds said the most important investment a person could make as a governor was their time and enthusiasm.

Two years ago, PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor Erica Conway volunteered to become a governor at Fairfax Specialist Business and Enterprise College, in Sutton Coldfield.

Ms Conway, aged 36, from New Oscott, found out about becoming a governor through contact between SGOSS and her company, and through the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

"I went on to a website where I filled in details about job locations and previous experience. They carried out basic checks and tried to match me with local school," she said.

"I have two official roles, one on the main board of governors and I am also on the educational subcommittee."

For 12 months, Ms Conway has acted as a special educational needs governor, which means she has had to attend special awareness days.

For more information about becoming a governor call 0121 464 2222.