National Careers Week Building Futures Through Volunteering

This week is National Careers Week, an annual opportunity to celebrate and promote the careers guidance and educational resources that are available across the UK. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to talk about how volunteering can contribute to that career journey.

Here at the Volunteer Centre we are often asked if volunteering will lead to a paid job. The answer is a little more complicated than yes or no! It is unlikely that you would volunteer in a role and then become a paid member of staff at the organisation you’re volunteering for. It does happen of course; sometimes being in the right place at the right time, and having the recent, relevant experience required, can really work in your favour.

However what is more likely is that, if you are seeking paid work, volunteering can strengthen your CV with recent, relevant experience, as well as a potential reference, when applying for a job elsewhere. To this end, many people will try to find volunteering that is relevant to their future career or job goals. Want to work in retail? Then volunteer at a charity shop. Want to work in catering or hospitality? Perhaps a role with a community café will be a good fit.

Volunteering can also bring with it additional training and certification, such as first aid at work or food hygiene qualifications.

There is another way to think of volunteering though, and that is as a compliment to any current education or training that you might be doing, or work experience that you might already have. Think of volunteering as a way of filling gaps. Say you’re at college or university and your course is giving you lots of theoretical, maybe even practical, knowledge in a particular area, but you know that once you start applying for jobs it’s people skills that will tip the scale in your favour, or problem solving, or organisational skills, and you’re not getting those directly from your studies. Find a volunteer role that adds these things into the mix.

You can think of volunteering as a tool in your career toolbox, the thing that does what your other tools don’t. Figure out what’s missing and find something to volunteer for that remedies that. And remember that volunteering, just like career development, is for anyone at any age! Contact the Volunteer Centre if you’d like to know more.