Many charities and businesses are run by small armies of volunteers who willingly give their time, experience and skills to both help others and benefit their communities. This is obviously great news for the organisations themselves, but why do people volunteer? Are there any benefits for them?

You might think the only personal benefits of volunteering are being able to undertake rewarding and enriching experiences, which make you feel good about yourself. However, whilst a warm fuzzy feeling often goes hand-in-hand with giving up your time, there are also more tangible, yet less often recognised benefits for any volunteer.

School Leavers

When you’re looking for a full-time job after leaving school it can be difficult to make your application look different from the rest. Having voluntary work on your CV can help you stand out and will show your willingness to work hard. It also introduces you to people who can provide you with references to support your applications.

Unemployed

A big concern for employers when hiring people who are unemployed – especially people who have been unemployed for a while – is whether they will be able to adapt back into a working environment. Volunteering is a great way of giving structure to your days and also demonstrating that you are still eager to work.

Organisations that use volunteers also generally employ paid staff for certain roles. These people are often excellent contacts who may know of upcoming vacancies within the organisation or in other companies, giving you the opportunity to apply before they are advertised externally to anyone else.

Career Change or Progression

Volunteering can help you if you’re at a stage in your career where you’d like a change, either up the career ladder or to another profession completely. Volunteering will often expose you to different experiences and develop new skills, which you can then use to make your career move.

Retirement

When you retire, volunteering is a good way of meeting new people who have similar interests and lifestyles. It can replace some of the daily structure that has been lost by leaving work but also offers you the flexibility to decide when you offer your time.

With so many volunteering opportunities available, now could be the perfect time for you to give it a go and see what it can do for you. It can be done over different time periods, ranging from a one day event to a few hours a week on a permanent basis.

Jobsite has recently launched JobAid, a service where volunteer roles and positions working at charities can be advertised for free. Why not search to see if any of these are right for you?