If you are unemployed and have too much time on your hands, try volunteering. Not only does it increase your skillset, it creates opportunity and makes you feel better about yourself.
You can get a work-related reference, improve your CV and gain workplace experience.
What are the benefits of volunteering?
- it makes you feel better in yourself, that you are giving up your time to help others who need it – you are really making a difference to people’s lives!
- you become more employable, by demonstrating you can use your initiative to spend your time more wisely, and that you are the type of person who wants to help others.
- you will learn new skills hands-on.
- it creates opportunity by increasing your list of contacts, any one of which brings new job opportunities – from the volunteers you work with, the contacts they know, and also the people you are actually helping.
Tools
- Search for voluntary work in England
- Search for voluntary work in Scotland
- Search for voluntary work in Wales
Read more
- Volunteering while unemployed helps others and can help you @ volunteering.org.uk
Excerpt: Applying for jobs can take a lot of time and effort, which you can balance by volunteering to do something that you enjoy. Employers see volunteer(s) as having something to offer, and making a positive contribution is a great way to boost selfconfidence. Volunteering gives you the chance to explore your interests. It can help you use and improve your skills. It can also give you the chance to try out jobs that you may not have thought about before. Volunteering can keep you familiar with the work place, giving you knowledge and confidence at job interviews.
- Volunteering while looking for work @ Direct.Gov
Excerpt: Volunteering is a great way to develop and learn new skills while you are looking for a job. It could even increase your chances of finding work. Find out more, including information about ‘Work Together’ – the new help you can get with volunteering from Jobcentre Plus.
Photo: VISIONS Service Adventures, Montana, community service summer programs by VISIONS Service Adventures under Creative Commons license
