Career News
"Be The Best That You Can Be" - Promoting Independant Learning and Growth
How can you build understanding & experience in your field?..... Volunteer!
Participating in a school’s Work Experience Program is one-way young people can gain an insight/experience into a career field they are considering and another is by volunteering.
After recently attending a seminar on the benefits of volunteering delivered by Lawrence Moore & Coco Callanan from Chisholm, it strengthened my view that volunteering was a key building block in not only developing your career ‘network’ but also in assisting young people with gaining employability skills such as teamwork, time management, communication and problem solving which could then have a positive impact on their ability to find work.
Why Volunteer?
- Meet new people and make new friends/Have fun
- Contribute to worthwhile causes
- Improve your mental health and wellbeing
- Reduce stress
- Provides a sense of purpose
- Increase your chances of obtaining paid work in your ideal career (develop a list of work referees)
- People in leadership/hiring managers highly value people who volunteer
- Helps build your skills sets and gain important job skills
- Provides an opportunity to practice improving skills used in workplaces such as team skills, communication skills
- Doesn’t need to involve a long-term commitment
- Makes us better people
Where can you start/How can you get involved?
You can volunteer almost anywhere and in diverse areas – web designer, copywriter, aged care, foster career for animals, events, fundraising, marketing, Admin support, etc.
Work out what the right opportunity is for you. Consider your goals, and interests because it will be a richer experience. Think about what skills you want to develop; what causes are important to you.
Where to find volunteering opportunities?
- Seek Volunteer
- Volunteering Victoria
- Go, Volunteer
- Ethical Jobs
- All local councils have volunteering departments
- Groomed to Go
- Volunteer Matcher
- St Vincent’s Volunteering
- Volunteering @ Casey
There are many volunteer opportunities available within your community and you can obtain a list of these by visiting any of the abovementioned websites. I strongly encourage young people and especially those who are thinking about getting into part-time work to consider volunteering as a stepping stone into the workforce and/or possibly gaining experience in their field of interest😊
Voula Jakubicki
Careers Coordinator
