There are many aspects to the student life. The unfair stereotype for most is three years of hard partying. The second aspect is the reason you are there at all – study. The third, and one that doesn’t receive as much attention as it should, is volunteering. RAG Week is an established aspect of how students give back to communities, but it is not the limit of the charitable work. Increasingly, students are volunteering – not just out of altruism – but to develop skills for future employability.
Identify Your Main Skill(s)
To get the best out of your volunteering experience, you should consider what you are best at. If you hate manual work, then building a shelter for the homeless won’t benefit the charity any more than it will benefit you. You’ll also have a miserable experience. These can include but are not limited to: creativity, problem solving, teamwork, emotional strength and intelligence (EQ).
Creativity: Design, Photography, Writing
Charities always need creative individuals. They need people with great communication skills to compose written materials to reach out to donors. They need designers to create stunning visual marketing such as logos, photographers, and even website coders. Are you adept with Photoshop? Can you design logos or are you a great wordsmith? Charities need you.
Problem Solving: Project Management
Charities in all sectors do great work. But because they rely so heavily on volunteers, it usually means they can’t afford people with high-level skills. Project management can be anything from procurement and logistics, to examining problems within the industry to look for potential solutions, such better management of infrastructure in developing world projects.
Research Skills: Archives
While the county and national archives have come a long way in the last decade, in some cases, smaller records archives such as churches are still slowly piecing together records. They may require help organising or sorting some very old records, while making such documents available on the web means volunteers are required in digitising.
Teamwork: Environmental Clean Up
Local conservation and nature charities are always looking for people to help clean up. Beach cleans are great for people who live near a beach, but there are also local beauty spots, national parks and other open spaces where people simply dump things. It isn’t just about clearing dumped waste though. Identification and removal of invasive species and working to protect threatened species too.
Emotional Intelligence: Company for Lonely People
If you’re good with people, a great listener and interested in hearing about others’ life experiences, perhaps volunteer for Age UK or any other charities helping lonely people. Older people are the loneliest but this is an epidemic facing much younger people today too. Other people who might need company are long-term ill in-patients.