overcoming barriers W
In today’s highly competitive job market, volunteering has never been more valuable in helping young people increase their self-confidence and gain work experience that will help them stand out from the crowd. Michelle Riordan sees how we can remove the potential barriers to volunteering...
hilst it’s important that young people realise they are giving up their time primarily to help others, the environment or their local community, your support in emphasising how it can also help them as individuals is essential when encouraging them to sign up to and complete their DofE. We believe that participants get just as much, if not
more, from their Volunteering section as those they support. However, new independent research has found some key barriers that are potentially putting young people off from volunteering.
“What’s in it for me…?”
A number of young people only see volunteering as an activity that benefits others. But the truth is that the benefits of volunteering on the individual are far reaching. They can have a dramatic impact on young people’s life, career prospects and skill development. As you know, volunteering as part of their DofE
provides young people the opportunity to learn something new and gain work-ready ‘soft skills’ that will help them throughout their life. These include keeping calm in challenging situations and organising their time. Not only are these skills that are crucial to success in everyday life, they are also extremely attractive to universities and employers. In a recent survey of over 500 UK business leaders, 95% deemed ‘soft skills’ as just as important on a young person’s CV as academic achievements alone. These included learning customer service skills by working in a charity shop to picking up teamworking skills whilst undertaking marine conservation for a wildlife organisation. Explaining how participants’ commitment to volunteering can help them grow and
8 “I don’t have time…”
One of the biggest reasons for young people not taking part in volunteering is lack of time. Or, more accurately, the perception of not having enough time. Perhaps they have got to work, look after family or study, or they have other commitments such as sports or hobbies with no hours left in the day to give. Similar explanations may be down to the common misconception that there is limited flexibility within volunteering. They may think that they will be expected to commit to a vast amount of time each week doing something big. Volunteering comes in all shapes and
Issue 29: SPRING 2018 DofE Magazine
develop, increasing their chances of securing a job, will make the prospect sound more appealing. With ‘skills, career and education’ reported as a main priority when choosing their activity, young people should think carefully about how they would like to spend their time volunteering. What issues, causes or organisations are they passionate about? Which skills do they want to gain that will help to enhance their CV or give them interesting topics to discuss at interviews? They can then see what opportunities are out there in that area and which they’ll care about and enjoy.
It’s
worth advising young people that volunteering is the perfect opportunity for them to try out something that they may later decide to follow as a career.
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