I Want to Work in ..... Voluntary Work

 

This is often an excellent way of gaining career-related experience. Many organisations offer opportunities to work with disadvantaged or disabled people, often children or the elderly, in the UK and abroad. Charities often use volunteers to help with office administration, fundraising, public relations and research - good experience for careers with these organisations or elsewhere in the public sector or business field. The "Directory of Volunteering and Employment Opportunities" is useful here.

A survey by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations found that working as a volunteer was second only to dance as the biggest source of enjoyment.

There are about 22 million volunteers in the UK at present. Voluntary work will help to improve your skills, it will also help to boost your confidence, allow you to make new friends and give you a lift knowing that you are helping others worse off then yourself. Helping others is a good way to help yourself. Research showed that volunteering for a good cause can increase our happiness as much as if we doubled our income. The more voluntary work volunteers did the happier they got and they were also less prone to depression and physically healthier.

Voluntary work is not just available in the "voluntary sector". If you hope to work in the media, work placements with commercial employers such as local newspapers and radio stations are usually unpaid, but are an excellent way of building up skills and experience that will give you a head start in this fiercely competitive business.

The same principle applies to advertising, publishing, political research, etc.: use professional directories such as the Hollis Press and PR Yearbook for contact addresses.

Other Relevant Web Pages

If you want to feel good, do good. An effective cure for unhappiness is to help others.

 

Last fully updated March 2009