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Volunteering for Employability

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... THE ACT OF CHOOSING TO BE A VOLUNTEER CAN SHOW EVEN GREATER INITIATIVE AND COMMITMENT. ... Careers such as advertising or conservation are extremely competitive. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Volunteering for Employability


1
Volunteering for Employability
  • Katy Goldstraw
  • CoMMUni
  • Manchester Metropolitan University

2
What is coMMUni?
  • Aims
  • Be a gateway between MMU and the Voluntary Sector
  • Develop a culture of Volunteering within MMU
  • Enable the voluntary sector to access MMUs
    resources
  • To help volunteers to gain valuable new skills
    and add to their experience of life

3
Volunteering for employability
  • PUT ASIDE PRECONCEPTIONS VOLUNTEERING IS WORK
    EXPERIENCE WITH THE ADDED POSSIBILITY THAT THE
    ACT OF CHOOSING TO BE A VOLUNTEER CAN SHOW EVEN
    GREATER INITIATIVE AND COMMITMENT.
  • MIKE KILLINGLEY, SENIOR MANAGER EXECUTIVE
    EDUCATION, HSBC BANK

4
WANT TO CHANGE SOMEONES LIFE? THEN WHY NOT
START WITH YOUR OWN?STEVE WADE, STUDENT
VOLUNTEER, UNIVERSITY OF LOUGHBOROUGH
5
Employability Skills
  • Communication Skills
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Problem Solving
  • Team work
  • Management Leadership
  • Networking
  • Organisational
  • Time Management

6
VOLUNTEERING FOR EMPLOYABILITY
  • Motivations behind volunteering
  • Qualitative benefits to volunteering
  • Quantative benefits to volunteering

7
Motivations for Volunteering
  • If their parents volunteer then children are more
    likely to volunteer, likewise if school
    encourages volunteering, children are more likely
    to volunteer.
  • The more educated a volunteer is, the more likely
    they are to volunteer. Educated people are also
    more likely to be asked to volunteer (Wilson
    2000219).
  • The self employed and those with flexible work
    schedules are most likely to volunteer which
    suggests that students are an excellent group to
    recruit from (Wilson 2000221).

8
Motivations for Volunteering
  • Ellis Pane et al identifies four motivations for
    volunteering psychological altitudinal
    factors, social and social background issues,
    perceptions of community and participation and
    situational factors (20064).
  • Trigger factors that encourage people to
    volunteer are being asked, encounters and
    events, accessing a brokerage service , time and
    having a specific need ( Ellis Pane 20068).

9
Motivations for Volunteering
  • People from socially excluded groups are likely
    to volunteer in different ways. Those from black
    and minority ethnic backgrounds tend to volunteer
    informally.
  • People with disabilities are more likely to
    volunteer within disability organisations.

10
REDUCING SOCIAL EXCLUSION
  • Volunteering can reduce social exclusion, it can
    combat feelings of isolation, it can boost
    confidence and self esteem, increase peoples
    skills and bring people from different
    backgrounds together (Smith et al 20014).

11
Benefits of Volunteering
  • Volunteers are more politically active than non
    volunteers (Knoke in Wilson 2000231) suggesting
    a positive impact on citizenship.
  • The act of volunteering can affect a persons
    perceptions of well being of self worth and
    making a contribution to society unpaid work
    that is taken by volunteers makes a vital
    contribution to family and community (Hardhill
    Baines 2003102).
  • Volunteering reduces anti social behaviour
    although research has not been able to define the
    reasoning for this (Wilson 2000231).

12
Benefits of Volunteering
  • Volunteers experience higher health benefits
    associated with more social ties, in terms of
    both physical and mental health (Wilson
    2000232).
  • Meier and Stutzer find that volunteers are
    more satisfied with the life than non-volunteers
    (2004 1)
  • Astin 1998 states that undergraduates who
    volunteer are more likely to earn postgraduate
    degrees (in Wilson 200233).

13
Qualitative benefits to volunteering for
employability
  • VOLUNTEERING AS WORK EXPERIENCE
  • The boundaries have shifted between paid work,
    volunteering and education.
  • Since 1997 paid work has assumed central
    importance in social policy and a key role has
    been identified for voluntary organisations in
    the delivery of care.
  • Student reflections on work experience suggest
    that they gain communications skills, team work,
    organisational skills and personal development.
  • These skills are all essential when moving into
    paid employment.
  • Volunteering can combine with academic success to
    create a well rounded employee who has the
    transferable skills to move easily into
    employment.

14
Qualitative benefits to volunteering for
employability
  • Volunteering was also clearly linked to being an
    active citizen (Taylor et al 200023).
  • Taylor et al identified that students felt
    inspired towards a career through their
    volunteering which allowed them to overcome their
    fears about the world of work, and inspired them
    to look for new challenges in terms of their
    future employment.
  • Volunteering can teach students a great deal
    about the world of work and the voluntary sector
    many students welcome the opportunity to
    reflect upon their skills development and their
    role in the community (Taylor et al 200032)
  • Some students felt volunteering gave them fresh
    insight into their study and that volunteering
    had enabled them to better understand their
    academic course.

15
Qualitative benefits to volunteering for
employability
  • Volunteering can also provide students with the
    networks they need to access future employment.
  • Careers such as advertising or conservation are
    extremely competitive.
  • Volunteering can provide the experience to match
    academic success and can boost social capital.
  • The networks of social ties built through
    volunteering can be effectively used when
    searching for jobs.

16
Quantitative benefits to volunteering for
employability
  • Research by the former Department for Education
    and Skills (DFES) states voluntary activity can
    improve an individuals ability to gain maintain
    or improve their employment (Hirst 2000iii).
  • According to DFES research 54 of volunteers
    believe that volunteering experience has helped
    or will help them get a job and 41 of those who
    are now employed believe their volunteering
    helped them to get their current job (Hirst
    2000vi).
  • The DFES have found particular areas when
    volunteering helps people not having a driving
    licence, living on ones own, not having
    dependants and being young.
  • They also concluded that volunteering positively
    improved employability when the volunteering
    spanned 50 hours or more, was for more than one
    organisation, was working with the public,
    involved training, involved a review of the
    voluntary activity, involved working as part of a
    team and contained a variety of experience (Hirst
    2000vii).

17
Quantitative benefits to volunteering for
employability
  • The volunteers motivation is also very important
    those who had taken their volunteering activity
    for employment reasons are far more likely than
    others to report a positive impact (Hirst
    2000vii).
  • Those who volunteer for employability also were
    found to be less likely to return to Job seekers
    allowance than those that had not volunteered
    (Hirst 2000ix).
  • The DFES concluded overall more than half of all
    volunteers perceive that voluntary activity has
    had a positive impact on their chances of finding
    work (Hirst 200046).

18
Quantitative benefits to volunteering for
employability
  • Research done by Nottingham Council for Voluntary
    service (CVS) had similar findings for people
    whose eventual aim was definitely to work doing
    some voluntary work did seem like a stepping
    point along the way people valued the extra
    support and training available (Corden
    Sainsbury 200528)

19
The Policy Context
  • Recommendation 18
  • We recommend that all institutions should over
    the medium term identify opportunities to
    increase the extent to which programs help
    students to become familiar with work and help
    them reflect on such experience
  • Dearing Report 1997. Stress on need for UK
    educations systems to fit the new social and
    economic context.

20
The Policy Context
  • The Leitch Review believes that the UK urgently
    needs to raise its game and set itself a greater
    ambition to have a world class skills base by
    2020
  • Leitch Review 2005

21
The Policy Context
  • Recommendation 11
  • The opportunity to improve skills and
    employability is a powerful incentive for young
    people to volunteer. It is important to mark the
    contribution made by young volunteers and to
    recognise the skills they learn in the course of
    their activity
  • Russell Commission Report 2005

22
CONCLUSIONS
  • Volunteering gives the students CV the edge!
  • Gives students the opportunity to gain experience
    in their chosen career.
  • Shows a clear commitment to a Job role
  • Develops a well rounded individual.
  • Supports a companys corporate social
    responsibility
  • Can provide students with new skills for a job
    role.
  • Can provide more flexibility than a paid role to
    try new experiences. Students can volunteer
    alongside your current job to try out a new
    experience.
  • Gaps on your CV are not constructive.

23
Contact Details
  • Katy Goldstraw
  • info_at_communi.org.uk
  • 0161 247 2211
  • www.communi.org.uk

24
RESOURCES
  • VOLUNTEERING ENGLAND
  • www.volunteering.org.uk
  • Community Service Volunteers
  • www.csv.org.uk
  • National Association of Volunteer Bureax
  • www.navb.org.uk
  • Volunteering Database MMU www.communi.org.uk
  • Volunteering Database UK wide www.do-it.org.uk

25
BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • Chinman,MJ Wandersman, A THE BENEFITS AND COSTS
    OF VOLUNTEERING IN COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS
    Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
    19992846
  • Corden, A Sainsbury, R VOLUNTEERING FOR
    EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS Social Policy Research Unit,
    University of York 2005
  • Gaskin, K A CHOICE BLENDWHAT VOLUNTEERS WANT
    FROM ORGANISATIONS AND MANAGEMENT Institute for
    Volunteering Research 2003
  • Hardill, I Baines, S DOING ONES DUTY AND THE
    NEW ECONOMY Local Economy May 2003 Vol 18 no 2
    102-108
  • Hirst, A LINKS BETWEEN VOLUNTEERING AND
    EMPLOYABILITY Research Report RR309 Cambridge
    Policy Consultants DFES
  • Meier, S Stutzer, A IS VOLUNTEERING REWARDING
    IN ITSELF Institute for Empirical Research in
    Economics, University of Zurich 2004
  • Taylor, G et al THE IMPACT OF WORK BASED LEARNING
    ON STUDENTS UNDERSTANDING OF CITIZENSHIP AND
    THEIR ROLE IN THE COMMUNITY Social Policy and
    Social Work Subject Centre, Higher Education
    Academy, Sheffield Hallam University Report Four
    2000
  • Wilson, J VOLUNTEERING in Annual Review of
    Sociology 2000.26215-40
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