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# 1.2 Standing out from the crowd

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‘Volunteering looks great on your CV….It’s the perfect way to get a taste of working life and gain skills and experience’

CSV website

Employers are impressed by voluntary work, but what are the hard facts about this?

Research carried out by Reeds Recruitment agency for the charity Timebank found that:

- 73 per cent of employers would employ a candidate with volunteering experience over one without;
- 94 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;
- 94 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. Although all voluntary work can be interesting to them there are some careers where relevant work experience is a prerequisite.

◄Contents►Next: 1.3 Essential ‘voluntary’ work experience

OpenLearn - Using Voluntary work to get ahead in the job market
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