To mark Student Volunteering Week, our Marketing Assistant Zsofia Menyhei has written a piece highlighting all the great reasons why you should consider volunteering.
Volunteering as a student enhances your personal development and career prospects. It is also a great way of meeting new people and exploring your local area. Above all of course, volunteering is an invaluable way of helping others and spending your time on a truly worthwhile cause. So whether you are interested in joining a student society (yes it counts as volunteering), working towards protecting the environment, helping those less fortunate, or supporting animals, here is how volunteering could make you into an even more amazing person than you already are!
Personal Development and your Wellbeing
- By giving back to your community you make a difference to the lives of others. Making valuable contributions to an honourable cause increases your self-esteem, and can also make you feel fulfilled, valued, and happier in the long term.
- Volunteering will usually involve working in a team. Collaborating with others is always a great way of becoming familiar with your strengths and improving on any weaknesses.
- Undertaking a volunteering activity is an excellent way of spending quality time outside of your usual studies. It is an opportunity to get a break from the busy workdays while still working towards a successful future and contributing to the common good.
- The work involved in volunteering projects requires communication and listening skills, as well as understanding and empathy. These are crucial skills for anyone and greatly contribute to an individual’s personal development.
Career Development
- Volunteering can help you develop transferable skills valued by employers. An excellent way of ensuring that your volunteering activities will improve your employability is looking at the application criteria of your target employers, identifying skills you may not have yet and choosing volunteering opportunities involving that skill. The volunteering database Do-it’s advance opportunity search allows you to do exactly that.
- Securing a spot on the committee of a student society means you can develop employability skills such as leadership, public speaking, organisation, communication and finance.
- Try taking up a volunteering role in your desired industry. This will get you relevant experience in the sector, thus helping you avoid the vicious circle of trying to get experience but getting rejected due to having no experience.
- Volunteering also enhances your CV. It shows employers that you are a well-rounded applicant who values their community and is keen to help.
- Some volunteering opportunities even give you an accreditation upon completion, which will help you stand out from the hundreds of other applicants for graduate roles.
- Volunteering in a field you are interested in may even get you some networking opportunities through meeting the more senior members of the team or organization.
Social
- Undertaking an activity you are interested in is a fool proof way of meeting new people who share your interests and values.
- Working in your local area lets you becoming more familiar with your community, and help you appreciate your surroundings.
While dedicating your time to valuable causes for no monetary compensation is commendable, make sure that you do not undertake unpaid roles, such as admin, for profit making companies. Do not let anyone take advantage of your generosity – any volunteering work you do should be beneficial to you or the wider society.
Interested in volunteering but not sure where to start looking? TeamLondon advertises countless opportunities in a wide range of sectors. KCLSU also has a volunteering section on their website as well as a comprehensive list of student societies you could get involved in.
So get involved, make yourself more employable and the world a better place! Happy volunteering!