◄Previous: Contents

# Introduction

Any local newspaper describes the latest achievements of volunteers in the community: hospital fund-raising, a wildlife pond created. The advantages to the community are obvious, but this unit explores how engaging in voluntary work can enhance your employment opportunities.

It will focus 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. We will explore practical strategies to make the most of your voluntary experience and give you the edge in the job market.

1. Why do it?
2. What can I offer?
3. What would suit me?
4. 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 this free course, you should 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.

This unit is from our Open University archive. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this subject area.

This unit is also available in Welsh on Openlearn Cymru.

◄Contents►Next: Learning outcomes

OpenLearn - Using Voluntary work to get ahead in the job market
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.