VOLUNTEERING into EMPLOYABILITY Volunteer s Portfolio

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1 VOLUNTEERING into EMPLOYABILITY Volunteer s Portfolio '69 per cent of employers have done voluntary work in their lifetime, with over half stating that volunteering gave them people skills which helped them get to where they are today. Half of employers say that job candidates with volunteering experience are more motivated than other candidates.' James Caan, Dragons' Den The main aim of this tool is to assist you to: * plan to get what you want from your volunteering activity * reflect upon your volunteering experiences * help you identify the skills you have learnt or developed * help you to interpret those skills and experiences for prospective employers so that you can demonstrate evidence and examples of your employability and job readiness (also known as workplace competency) * empower you to ask your Volunteering Supervisor/Manager/Mentor for the type of development, experience, challenges that will help you achieve your own goals Company Limited By Guarantee (England and Wales). Registered Office as above. Company Registration : Charity Registration :

2 This self-assessment tool is: designed to complement our support handbook My Skills Booklet. For a copy of this support handbook please go to: where you can download it for free for you to use either on your own or with the support of your supervisor/manager at the organisation where you are volunteering By working through this self-assessment tool at your own pace, you will:. be able to identify how the activities you did or plan to do while volunteering can be shown to contain valuable skills and learning. be able to show how these skills are transferable into paid employment. use this knowledge to create a document that can be added to your Curriculum Vitae or support you in writing one. see how to demonstrate skills gained to potential employers 5. use this to get ready for interviews A benefit of doing this and identifying transferable skills is that you will gain a clearer picture of how you have changed as a result of your volunteering. Have a look at the diagram on the back page of this booklet. This booklet is divided into five main sections:. Personal Development Plan. Reflective Questionnaire. Learning from Training. Identifying Skills - Table 5. Action Plan This document also includes two more steps: 6. Creating a Volunteering Summary Sheet 7. Access a free on-line course: Using Voluntary Work to get Ahead in the Job Market At the rear of this document you will find two infographs : Social & Emotional Competencies Your Volunteering Journey If you have the time and concentration then we suggest you work through each section. However, you may prefer to just focus on one of the sections more than the others. This is fine. Remember that this is YOUR portfolio and you aren t being tested against anyone else. Volunteer Centre Enfield can help you find volunteering work. To access our services (free half day workshop, one-to-one appointment, Volunteering Registration Form and Volunteering Opportunities Booklet) go to Our live volunteering database is at

3 VOLUNTEER PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN You may find it useful to consider these questions before you start using the resources in this booklet or before you actually start to apply for specific roles or before you commence actually volunteering with an organisation. You should get the opportunity to DEVELOP YOURSELF personally through volunteering. You will achieve the most if you OWN this process and determine what YOU want to achieve through volunteering. Before you take on a Volunteering Placement, think about your development objectives and let your supervisor know what they are so that they can think about ways in which they can support you. Tasks can then potentially be arranged within the scope of the volunteer role where possible to allow you to meet your objectives. Complete the following as fully as possible: I am volunteering because I want to achieve the following: I hope to achieve my objectives by carrying out the following tasks: I am especially interested in these areas/skills/tasks: I would like to develop specific skills in: Other aims: Any other comments:

4 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONNAIRE What is reflection? Reflection is the process of thinking critically about an experience, of replaying what happened in order to lead to new understanding and enhanced learning. Reflection is important to your volunteering because it helps you get meaning from the experiences and enables you to learn from them. It can help you in your preparation for paid work by enabling you to show what skills you have developed and to explain how you have developed them. Thinking about your volunteering so far, answer the following questions as fully as possible. You may want to think about the volunteering you are currently doing, or you may want to think about your experiences from other volunteering you have done. Questions to consider Why did you become a volunteer? Write your thoughts here Write down why you first became interested in volunteering, how you chose this organisation to volunteer with and what your expectations of volunteering were. What activities have you carried out as a volunteer? List here all the tasks and roles you have done. What did you find most rewarding about your volunteering? Think of the aspects of volunteering you like and what you feel you got from your volunteering. What did you find difficult and why? Think of the aspects of volunteering you found difficult and why.

5 How do you think your voluntary activity benefited you, your family, local society etc.? Does your voluntary work gives something good to the others? What and why? What have you learned about yourself? As a volunteer have you found something new about yourself? Have you done something that you originally didn t think was possible like meet new people, do some speaking in public etc? Have a look at the diagram on the inside back cover of this booklet Do you have any other thoughts about your experience of volunteering? Just jot down here anything that comes to mind. Remember that this is YOUR portfolio and you aren t being tested against anyone else. Research carried out by Reed Recruitment for the charity Timebank found that: 7 per cent of employers would employ a candidate with volunteering experience over one without 9 per cent of employers believe that volunteering can add to skills 58 per cent of employers say that voluntary work experience can actually be more valuable than experience gained in paid employment 9 per cent of employees who volunteered to learn new skills had benefited either by getting their first job, improving their salary, or being promoted There is clearly little doubt about how employers see the benefits of voluntary work

6 LEARNING FROM TRAINING Questions to consider Make a list of training courses you have attended as part of your volunteering role(s) (you may want to include informal as well as formal training informal is what someone has shown you how to do as you do your volunteering work, formal is where you have attended a specific focussed training session usually at a venue outside of your normal working environment ) Write your thoughts here What have you learned through these courses? Which parts of the training courses have been particularly relevant for roles you may apply for in the future? Do you have any other thoughts about your training and development experiences? Just jot down here anything that comes to mind. Remember that this is YOUR portfolio and you aren t being tested against anyone else.

7 IDENTIFYING SKILLS Use this table to identify skills you have acquired or developed in your voluntary experience. The table includes a Level column; this is a way of estimating your own level. So for example level is where you feel you have only a little experience of that skill, level you have some experience and level three you have more experience. These levels are relative and the portfolio should help you identify where the skills are that you want to develop. Don t just consider the Skills Labels they are jargon which is useful to use on a CV. For this exercise think about the descriptions that are given. Not every part of the description will always apply they are a guide. Skills Volunteer role/activities Level Have you an example to show how you have demonstrated this skill in your volunteering?. Interpersonal Communication (Being able to communicate ideas and information to others and work with a variety of people in multi-cultural environments, for example volunteers, clients, staff members). External Communication (Managing public relations; lobbying and advocacy; promotion of your work/organisation through presentations, media contact etc.). Written Communication (Being able to present information in written form, e.g. reports, articles, minutes of meetings). Administration (General office work e.g. filing, typing, organising meetings, purchasing supplies) 5. Accounting (Preparing accounts and managing budgets; listing income/expenditure, preparing balance sheets etc.) 6. Fundraising / Marketing (Raising money; writing funding applications; increasing membership; developing sponsorship; publicising / advertising) 7. Event Organising (Organising events such as seminars, conferences, general assemblies, exhibitions, competitions, shows etc.) 8. Managing information (documentation) (Selecting and organising useful

8 and appropriate information and data to better understand situations and identify needs and/or resources) 9. Research (analytic approach) (Looking for appropriate information/data; desk research or field research; using qualitative or quantitative approaches; presenting findings to different audiences) 0. IT (Using computer programmes, e.g. Word, Excel, Access; using internet and ; using databases; designing websites; programming). Foreign languages (Understanding spoken and written language/s; translating and interpreting; using language for business purposes). Human Resources Management (Recruiting, training, supervising staff or volunteers, organising responsibilities and roles between staff and volunteers). Project management (Planning and developing programmes, defining scope, objectives, activities, resources and evaluation steps). Stress management (Management of conflicts, facing any human or practical problem) 5. Active Listening (Being receptive to what others say, showing empathy, not assuming a major role in the conversation, responding to requests for help) 6. Being Proactive (Showing initiative and creativity, responding to changing situations; being flexible) 7. Advice Giving (Specialist or general consultancy; counselling) 8.Negotiation / Mediation (Facilitating constructive debate; finding compromises; finding satisfactory solutions to conflicts)

9 9.Problem Solving (Finding appropriate solutions to specific situations; management of stress) 0. Decision Making (Identifying possible options and assuming responsibility for choosing best outcome). Leadership (Being able to take a lead, make strategic decisions to move forward; representing your organisation externally). Team working (Contributing to a collaborative climate; cooperating to reach common goals, accepting others points of view).networking (Creating and developing partnerships with individuals or organisations). Motivating Others (Encouraging others to get involved) 5.Training/Teaching (Teaching/training on an individual basis or in a group; in an informal or formal environment) 6. Personal Responsibility (Showing commitment and reliability; being able to organise your time and manage your work; motivating yourself) Specific skills developed as a result of your volunteering (please write in):

10 5 ACTION PLAN Now that you have identified the skills you have acquired through volunteering, you can use this knowledge to: show prospective employers how you have the skills they are looking for identify areas where you would like to improve skills further: There may be areas in which you identified your skills as a level, that is you haven t gained that much experience of this skill through your volunteering, but you would like to have the opportunity to improve this skill. The next section involves thinking about which skills you want to improve and developing an action plan. Skills development is an on-going process, and you may want to set some personal targets to help you develop additional skills or skills which you think will be directly relevant for the sort of jobs you are applying for or to increase your confidence in particular activities. Try to set realistic, achievable goals that you can put a time limit on. Identify the key goals you want to achieve through volunteering and then list them on the action plan below. You may find this section is one you want to talk over with your manager, supervisor, mentor or coordinator. They will be able to help and advise on the sorts of skills you may wish to develop and help form an action plan in which these skills can be linked to your volunteering. As a starting point look back over the skills table in Section and CHOOSE those you would like to improve. List those here:. first skill to be improved :. second skill :. third skill :. other skill: Now think about HOW you would like to improve these skills (maybe through attending training courses, working on another task within your role, or working with another volunteer from whom you can learn more)?. first skill :. second skill :. third skill :. other skill:

11 NOW START TO FILL IN YOUR ACTION PLAN It is important to set realistic, achievable goals that you can put a time limit on in order to measure progress. Identify the key goals you want to achieve through volunteering and then list them on the action plan below. Chose a time by which you want to have achieved the goal. You can fill in the progress column at this later date and decide if you need to take further action. Action to take Progress (activities/tasks to do, courses to Goals achieved? take, training to attend etc) Yes? No? Partly? Goal (skills to develop, awards, qualifications you want to gain) Time by which you want to have achieved goal (date, no of weeks from now etc)

12 6 SUMMARY SHEET Having worked through the above exercises you will have: a list of skills you have acquired documentation that you can show to employers as evidence of your skill gain If you have volunteered with more than one organisation you may want to summarise what you did at each. The following pro-forma is simply a suggested way to do that. Fill in one for each organisation you volunteer for. This summary then presents the results of the portfolio in such a way that you can easily transfer the information that employers want to see what skills do you have and how have you learnt and used them onto you CV or job application forms. Volunteering Summary Sheet Volunteer name Organisation name Volunteer role title Start and finish dates of volunteering Hours worked Main activities and responsibilities: Skills developed: Key achievements: Specific training attended (if applicable): Signature of coach or supervisor/manager: Date:

13 7 FREE ON-LINE COURSE: USING VOLUNTARY WORK TO GET AHEAD IN THE JOB MARKET Any local newspaper describes the latest achievements of volunteers in the community: hospital fundraising, a wildlife pond created. The advantages to the community of volunteering are obvious, but this FREE online Open University course explores how engaging in voluntary work can enhance your employment opportunities. The course can be accessed here: The course focuses mainly on how voluntary work can improve job prospects, for those actively job seeking or considering a career change. Employers are impressed by volunteering, but many volunteers don t appreciate what relevant skills they ve gained or know how to present them in applications and interviews. This course will explore practical strategies to make the most of your voluntary experience and give you the edge in the job market. The sections are entitled:. Why do it?. What can I offer?. What would suit me?. Getting started 5. Next steps 6. Impressing employers how to articulate the benefits and value of voluntary experience 7. FAQs 8. Sources of references By the end of the course, you will have a full appreciation of the range of voluntary work possible and an awareness of the different ways it can help you meet your objectives whether personal or job related. Learning outcomes By the end of the course, you will be able to: identify your objectives; assess what you have to offer; balance these against a practical framework of your personal circumstances; explore a range of reference sources to select what is most relevant; prepare an action plan, including evaluation of achievements; produce ongoing strategies to develop your voluntary work; understand employers requirements and match the skills you acquire; articulate and present the evidence of these skills effectively in job seeking. In order to take part in this course you just need access to a PC. If you don t have one at home, then you can use one FOR FREE at a local library: To complete this course you will need to commit about -5 hours of your time and can do so over whatever length of time you wish. Want to study another subject? There are over 600 other free online courses in the Learning Space at The Open University. Subjects include: developing personal skills, learning a language, IT skills, practical subjects like engineering and so on. Available from introductory to postgraduate level, each takes between and 50 hours to study. Sign up for free to get started!

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15 VOLUNTEERING into EMPLOYABILITY Volunteer s Portfolio Company Limited By Guarantee (England and Wales). Registered Office as above. Company Registration : Charity Registration :

16 VOLUNTEERING into EMPLOYABILITY Volunteer s Portfolio Company Limited By Guarantee (England and Wales). Registered Office as above. Company Registration : Charity Registration :