Volunteering does plenty of good, allowing organisations to develop a greater staff base and do more work that would not be possible without volunteers. But volunteering can hold many wider benefits, including creating more engaged and active citizens and helping individuals to build skills though informal learning. The benefits can pay off for younger people at the beginning of their working life, people already in employment who want to expand their skills base and even for charity and organisation workers seeking professional development.

For those teaching or training others in the voluntary sector, it is important to remind your learners of the benefits of volunteering. The key points of this blog post can also help you to bring more volunteers on board and grow your organisation.

How active citizenship and the acquisition of skills through informal learning can benefit an individual’s future

Showing the ability to work for a professional organisation and giving time to better your community can present volunteers with many good future opportunities. Volunteering is the act of undertaking work usually for something you care about and this shows good character, making it an excellent addition to your CV. This is not just beneficial for young people who are beginning their working life, but also for older workers who want to do something meaningful with their spare time and show that they can commit to multiple projects. The various transferable skills gained show that volunteers will be well suited for a number of professions and calling on their experience during competency-based interview questions will help them to prove their value. Volunteering shows greater awareness of the local community and an active role in essential work that organisations do to support communities on a regional and national level. This can also transfer into more professional skills, such as market awareness, knowledge of organisation ‘competitors’ and an awareness of client relationships.
 

Volunteering and active citizenship

Volunteering has a long standing relationship with active citizenship. Volunteering groups undertake work in a wide range of sectors; they might work as litter pickers for environmental groups, as administrators in a children’s hospital or as park rangers in a wildlife sanctuary. All of these help to develop an engaged public that have strong democratic values and benefit the community at a local, national and even global level.

Many employers encourage paid volunteering leave for a few days every year, whereby the employee works with a registered charity of their choice and in a wide range of roles. Companies will sometimes arrange large volunteering groups to tackle specific tasks and will send many employees to work together. Employers want to support their employees to take part in voluntary work and to become active citizens – they have a duty to take care of the community and the environment, and they benefit from more positive exposure and gaining more insightful employees.
 

Volunteering and skills acquisition

Volunteering supports varied skills acquisition, all of which can help volunteers to secure a successful career and encourage them to live a more satisfying life. Skills commonly associated with volunteering include:

• Leadership – volunteering could involve taking ownership of teams or decisions. Acquiring leadership skill does not have to involve a grand act, but can also be possible through making small decisions that influence the project journey. Building this skill is vital to obtaining a management position or to progress professionally quickly.
• Problem-solving – it is essential to virtually every career to have problem-solving skills under your belt. Every occupation will come with its own set of challenges and workers need to be ready to face them with confidence.
• Communication – a volunteering role is likely to require frequent communication with lots of different people – managers, clients, those in need of support and the general public. This will educate volunteers about appropriate ways of communicating with each, which will require different approaches.
• Time management – there are likely to be multiple tasks to complete in a voluntary role and these will all face deadlines. Employers will want to know the kind of tasks candidates carried out, how they prioritised them and how they can apply their experiences to new ones.
• Teamwork – working in a team will undoubtedly be a large part of volunteering, either in terms of working with immediate colleagues, a large extended team or working closely with others in the community. Teamwork is a vital skill for every career – even those working remotely will form part of a team.
• Creativity – many volunteering roles involve creative approaches, whether that be through fundraising and holding events, authoring an email marketing campaign or completing physically demanding projects like painting a children’s playground. Creative careers including graphic design and journalism all require workers to think in innovative ways and skills built while volunteering will help give you a competitive edge.   
• Training others – management roles all require strong training skills, as managers will be expected to pass these on to their subordinates and managers are likely to provide many formal training sessions over the course of their careers. Volunteers may be expected to train newcomers and to pass their knowledge on to the communities or groups they work with.
• Skills for specific professions – regardless of the type of voluntary work pursued, volunteers will be able to build industry specific skills. For example, working in a charity shop will help them to build knowledge in the retail sector and volunteering at an animal hospice will help prepare them for work in the veterinary sector.