Volunteering for Employability

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Volunteering for Employability

• Katy Goldstraw
• CoMMUni
• Manchester Metropolitan University

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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

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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

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WANT TO CHANGE SOMEONES LIFE? THEN WHY NOT
START WITH YOUR OWN?STEVE WADE, STUDENT
VOLUNTEER, UNIVERSITY OF LOUGHBOROUGH
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Employability Skills

• Communication Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Problem Solving
• Team work
• Management Leadership
• Networking
• Organisational
• Time Management

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VOLUNTEERING FOR EMPLOYABILITY

• Motivations behind volunteering
• Qualitative benefits to volunteering
• Quantative benefits to volunteering

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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).

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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).

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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.

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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).

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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).

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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).

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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)

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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Contact Details

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

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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

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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