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Introducing the voluntary sector
Introducing the voluntary sector

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1 Reviewing your learning

Man sitting on a set of stairs reading a book.
Figure 1 Thinking about what you have learned

It might have been one of several reasons why you chose to study this course – perhaps you’ve been thinking about volunteering or working in the voluntary sector and wanted to find out more about it; or you already work or volunteer and are seeking to build on your existing knowledge or skills. You may of course just have a general interest in voluntary organisations or are looking to develop your study skills for further learning.

Whatever your reasons for doing the course, it is useful to review what you have learned, which will then help you decide on your next steps. These steps might be applying for a job or volunteering role, looking for a new course to study or considering how to enhance your promotion prospects at work. Or you might simply want to make more of your current job or volunteer role.

Throughout the course, you have had a lot of practice in applying the key course ideas to your own experience. This has two purposes:

  1. It helps you to develop your understanding of the course ideas.
  2. It provides you with the opportunity to reflect on what you have learned and what you know about your own experience.

Reflection is an integral part of learning (whether this is through formal study or in the workplace) from both good and bad experiences. You will look at reflecting on learning in the workplace in Section 5.

You may already have questions you want to think about further or made a note of topics that particularly interested you while doing the course. If you haven’t, then there is the opportunity this week to go back over the topics and activities to remind yourself of what you found particularly interesting or relevant to your situation. There may even have been some topics you found challenging that you want to revisit.