ACQUIRING NEW SKILLS, CONFIDENCE, RESPONSIBILITY

As a young person in your teens or early to mid-20s, you may be keen to get into work and start earning money – but you are probably all too aware of the catch-22 of ‘no experience – no job – no job – no experience’. Also, you may feel it’s important to make your mark on society and play an active role in improving the world around you. The voluntary sector can provide you with valuable experience that will:

• add something valuable to your CV
• develop new skills
• give you responsibility
• develop your resourcefulness
• give you independence
• boost your confidence
• widen your circle of friends
• provide adventure
• give you a chance to make a contribution.

If you are still at college, voluntary work can provide you with experience that shows to potential employers that you have the right attitude. The good thing about voluntary work is that you can often choose to do something that’s very relevant to what you want to do later on. So, for example, if you want to go into nursing or health service management then voluntary work with children, the elderly or the disabled, or volunteering with an organisation like St John Ambulance, would show commitment to a caring profession and relevant experience.

If you are out of work or looking for your first paid job, the voluntary sector can be a good place to start, but it’s important not to think it’s an easy option. Many voluntary sector organisations need people with real skills, so again, earlier voluntary work will be useful. Some people decide to work in the voluntary sector for a few years before moving into the private sector – they feel it is a chance to do something worthwhile and it gives them a whole range of skills that will be useful later on.

Getting new skills

Depending on the type of organisation you work for and the kind of work you do, there are lots of possibilities for developing new skills. A lot of voluntary sector organisations take training (of volunteers and paid workers) very seriously.

• Office skills – word processing, spreadsheets, filing, reception duties, using office equipment, understanding office administration, bookkeeping, report writing, telephone skills and so on.
• Practical skills – cooking, car maintenance, hedge laying, farming, surveying, nursing, teaching, filmmaking, decorating, sailing, building and many more.
• People skills – dealing with people from all walks of life, listening, supporting, motivating, encouraging, sorting out conflicts, facilitating, negotiating.
• Initiative – for some voluntary work, such as Raleigh International, you will have to raise sponsorship money before you can take part. The ability to achieve this shows initiative and persistence as well as skills associated with fundraising (communication, publicity, organising, prioritising, setting and meeting targets and so on).

Increasing confidence

Again it depends on the kind of organisation you are working for, but working in the voluntary sector can increase your confidence, not only because of the challenges you face, but because the voluntary sector culture tends to be more supportive of people as people rather than just as workers.

• Training in things like assertiveness and work skills will help you gain confidence.
• Dealing with people from all kinds of backgrounds will expose you to all kinds of ideas and situations.
• Working with limited resources is challenging. For example, working with others to meet what might seem like impossible fundraising targets, and meeting that challenge, will boost your skills and confidence.
• Living away from home on residential volunteering schemes, whether in the UK or overseas, will boost your independence and your self-esteem.

Getting responsibility

If you want extra responsibility you have to be able to show your commitment and ability to do it, but most organisations are quite small so the opportunities to take this on and to get involved in things like small projects can occur quite frequently.

• ‘Managing’ – you could be working in a charity shop pricing articles, setting up window displays and dealing with customers; you might end up supervising other volunteers and training new ones.
• Leading a group – you could be asked to work on developing a newsletter or organising an exhibition, publicity event or even a campaign, and to get other people involved.
• You might get training in conservation and leadership skills and then use those skills with different groups of people, from local school children to visiting dignitaries.
• You could get involved with a local interest group – perhaps a campaign for street lighting or a political party – and be involved in gathering evidence and putting a case forward and presenting arguments.

On the other hand, if you want to do something where you just turn up and do some work for a good cause, without taking on responsibility, there are plenty of these opportunities too.

WORKING IN YOUR GAP YEAR OR DURING VACATIONS

A good time to do a concentrated burst of work (voluntary or paid) is during your vacations or your ‘gap’ year.

Paid vacation work in the voluntary sector can be difficult to get, but if you are fairly targeted in your approach, do your research well and have useful skills it can be done. Also, you could register with a high street temporary recruitment agency and let them know this is the kind of work you are interested in – but you should have typing and word processing skills to stand a real chance.

Voluntary vacation work is much easier to get and there are lots of organisations that take people to work on projects or schemes for days, weeks or months at a time, both in the UK and overseas. It can be a good opportunity to meet people from other parts of the country (or world even) and to really get away from it all while still doing something worthwhile and that you can put on your CV.

If the work is residential you might have to make a financial contribution to get a place, though some organisations will pay you a living allowance while you are working.

The gap year is traditionally taken between leaving school and going to university. But don’t feel this is what you have to do. There are lots of ways of doing it and here are some ideas:

• Leave school, work for a couple of years, take a year out to volunteer overseas and then return to work or go to college.
• Go straight to college and take a gap year after getting your qualification.
• Get your qualifications, work for a few years and then take a gap year.
• Get your qualifications through a modular course that you can ‘stop-start’. This may mean doing your studies part-time or by distance-learning (as with the Open University) while working, but the advantage will be that you can earn money while you study and be very flexible about when you do any volunteering.

The jobs market is getting more and more flexible, so you can do things like this when it’s right for you, rather than when it’s traditional.

Working in the UK

• It will be easier to get paid work in the voluntary sector.
• If you have to move away from home, whether volunteering or doing a paid job, you will still have your support networks fairly close.
• You can ‘sample’ the experience by volunteering for an organisation at weekends.

Working overseas

• It will be virtually impossible to get paid work without substantial work experience.
• You have little chance of getting a taste of the experience before you commit yourself to it.
• Doing voluntary work overseas could look better on your CV than backpacking around the world with no particular aim.
• You should think about whether you are going to organise the work before you depart from the UK or when you arrive in a particular country. In many ways it will be easier and safer to do it from the UK, though it may not seem as adventurous. Either way you will have to make sure you have all the right paperwork (visas, work permits and so on) before you go.

See Chapter 8 if you want to explore this option further.

DOING PAID WORK IN THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR – IS IT A REAL JOB?

You may decide that you want a career, or at least your first paid job, in the voluntary sector. You might face challenges from friends and family who believe that it’s not a ‘real’ job. This kind of attitude tends to follow from a lack of understanding of the sector and how it works.

Of course, if you do want to work in the sector it’s important to be clear about your own motives, what you can offer and what you expect to get out of it (see Chapters 2 and 3). If you do work in the sector, occasionally when you tell people they will say things like ‘do you get paid for that?’ as if you had another ‘real’ job.

So here are some useful things to know if you, your friends or family are concerned that working in the voluntary sector isn’t part of the real world:

• Salaries in the voluntary sector range from below £10,000 to over £100,000.
• Voluntary sector organisations have contracts of employment, terms and conditions, disciplinary and grievance procedures, appraisals, trade union representation and many other things you would expect to find in a place of work.
• People working in the voluntary sector, like those in other sectors, make decisions about budgets, targets, policies and so on.
• People in voluntary sector organisations make decisions that affect the lives of others – sometimes they are life and death decisions.
• Some people in the voluntary sector have the ear of politicians, journalists, dignitaries, and industrialists.... In other words they can have a lot of influence.

UNDERSTANDING GOVERNMENT SCHEMES

All governments are concerned to keep unemployment low and to get people back into work. A number of schemes have been devised over the years to do this and the most successful has been the New Deal.

The New Deal began as something for the under-25 age group. However, it is now open to unemployed people of all ages, and the scheme is divided up to meet specific needs. For example, there is a scheme to help lone parents get back to work.

Under the New Deal scheme you are placed with an employer for six months and during that time you receive training and a wage or an allowance. Many New Deal schemes are run by voluntary sector organisations, so if you want to work in this sector and are currently unemployed it may be worth asking your employment adviser about this.

Another scheme is very new. It was announced in the government’s 2005 Budget and is called National Community Service. It will pay a living allowance for young people wanting to take a year out to do community-oriented volunteer work, and will also provide support for people wanting to try shorter term volunteering. At the time of writing there are no details about how this scheme will be run so it may be worth checking on the Home Office website at: www.homeoffice.gov.uk.

The advantages of working in the voluntary sector through government schemes tend to be:

• you get paid
• you learn new skills
• you get work experience to put on your CV
• you get training and possibly qualifications
• you get references
• to gain a knowledge of issues and voluntary sector culture
• it could be a stepping stone to your next job
• you could get taken on permanently.

HEARING WHAT PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYERS THINK

The majority of employers don’t look specifically for voluntary experience or experience of paid work in the voluntary sector. However, when applicants put it on their forms most employers seem keen to discuss it at interview. A small survey of private and public sector employers (ranging from the NHS to fast food chains) was carried out for this book. Below are the questions that were asked and a sample of the responses.

Looking for new staff – do employers look for evidence of involvement in voluntary activities?

• ‘Yes, it demonstrates motivation to work, ability to associate with people from different backgrounds, and the experiences contribute to the individual’s personal development.’
• ‘I do look for this. I look for evidence that the candidate has personally developed in some way; for example, listening skills through the Samaritans, teamwork if staffing an Oxfam shop, etc’
• ‘We don’t specifically look for involvement in voluntary activities, but if people have been involved we’re interested in talking about it.’
• ‘Voluntary work may be useful as experience of some work or as demonstrating commitment.’

Giving advice to someone considering voluntary activity – what do employers say?

• ‘Work in an area which interests you on a regular and consistent basis; seek to hold positions of responsibility; demonstrate your dependability, use of initiative, confidentiality, etc’
• ‘Consider what you could learn from the experience. Will it help you develop in areas where you might otherwise not have any experience?’
• ’Choose a function or an organisation which has some relevance to your career plans.’

Thinking about paid workers in the voluntary sector – what do employers say?

• ‘There’s no reason to suppose that voluntary sector work is less stressful or team-oriented than other types of work.’
• ‘Skills acquired in the voluntary sector are often transferable to other sectors. The internal politics in voluntary organisations can provide useful insights into public sector organisations.’
• ‘I would expect any voluntary organisation would be a very well-organised and cost-effective business, due to reliance on donations, etc. for the business to function.’

Developing useful skills and attributes in the voluntary sector – what do employers think?

• ‘It develops similar skills to commercial employment.’
• ‘Voluntary sector work can provide opportunities to take responsibility, to work in or lead teams and to make a real impact.’
• ‘Depending upon the role it can help leadership, planning and organisation, initiative and financial awareness.’
• ‘Teamwork, communication skills, creativity, awareness of limited resources, valuing staff.’