Volunteering - A way to your vocation?
Feeling it may be time to change? Why not venture down the volunteering route and see what opportunities await you?
Natalie, 21, Barry
You may know that volunteering can have many benefits to your health and well being by reducing stress, easing insomnia, increasing your confidence and generally helping hold onto that ‘feel good’ factor~ the list could go on! BUT did you also know it could prove beneficial to your career plans?
You don’t have to be in school to reap the rewards of volunteering for a bit of work experience (although there are no reasons why this should stop you!), whatever your age, educational status or occupation there are plenty of exciting opportunities awaiting you which could help you gain skills, feel fulfilled and prove beneficial to your career prospects!
Perhaps you are unsure of what your ideal career consists of, or are not feeling overly elated by the prospect of going to your current job tomorrow morning? Volunteering can act as an eye opener or ‘taste’ of certain careers, skills or situations, whether intentionally or not, which may help ‘point you in the right direction’, open your eyes to new opportunities or cause you to rethink your current occupation. Think about it, we spend a tremendous percentage of our lives working, so surely we should maximize our enjoyment of it and make sure our job is right for us?
Volunteering may help you build up a ‘network’ of contacts, which could help you onto your desired career path, open up opportunities or prove beneficial to your social life. It’s not always what you know, but whom you know, that helps! Plus, it may be that by volunteering you can get ‘first dibs’ on more long term (even paid) roles which arise in that sector. According to national charity ‘Time Bank’, 94% of employees who volunteered to learn new skills had benefited either by getting their first job, improving their salary, or being promoted.
Volunteering may enable you to gain skills to increase your employability, 94% of employers view volunteering as a good way to gain skills and 73% of employers would employ a candidate with volunteering experience over one without (Timebank.org.uk). That’s pretty impressive! Volunteering can do this by helping you to uncover your skills, or develop new skills to help you in your career challenges and looking fab on your CV too!
Volunteering may give you the resources, confidence and incentives to venture into an unexplored area of interest, many of which may work wonders for your working life!
On a personal note…
Through the Vale Volunteer Bureau I was lucky enough to spend several months volunteering in the occupational therapy department of a local hospital. It was by pure chance I was placed in this department having simply asked to have any role in the hospital going. I’m pleased to say that despite my initial uncertainty (I didn’t know what occupational therapy (OT) was let alone what therapists did and had never worked in healthcare!) it was by far the most beneficial, enjoyable and enlightening opportunity I’ve undertaken in my lifetime so far!
I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with clients and learning from the OT team. Each day held new chances to meet people, build my skill base and learn new things – plus it was so much fun! What’s more, by exploring the wonderful world of OT through volunteering I discovered lots about myself and the more time I spent in this role, I was enlightened to the fact that OT was something I wanted to pursue as a career.
Since then I’ve researched further into the career and successfully obtained a place to study OT in University. PLUS through the contacts I made in this role I have been offered further volunteering opportunities and secured paid employment within the hospital too. Not bad for something which began as a budget friendly, people friendly, ‘time filler’ eh!
So if you’re feeling it may be time to change why not venture down the volunteering route and see what opportunities await you? Here are some suggestions to get you thinking:
- Interesting in retail – why not try spending an afternoon volunteering in a charity shop?
- Keen to care – why not apply to volunteer in your local hospital, care home or with a charity of your choice?
- A career with animals calling you? Why not look into helping out in a community farm, or fundraising for an animal charity?
The opportunities are endless, so come and see if volunteering can work for you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION POP INTO THE VALE VOLUNTEER BUREAU,
34 HOLTON ROAD, BARRY OR CALL: 01446 421782
