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7 ways volunteering could benefit you

Volunteering your precious free time to help worthy causes is a really noble undertaking. You won’t earn big bucks, but there are plenty of other ways that becoming a volunteer could be of value.

Learn new skills

No matter where you decide to volunteer, there will always be an element of training. While the skills may seem basic or trivial, they could be essential building blocks for future careers.

For example, if you’re collecting, organising, accounting for, and distributing donations from school fundraisers, you might be learning more than you think about finances, budgeting and inventory. Skills useful in almost all jobs including management, accounting, or running your own business.

Then there’s the other skills that you might not even realise you’re working on, like communication, team work, independence, problem solving, and customer service – the list goes on.

Give your resume a boost

If you have lots of part time or summer work experience on your resume that’s fantastic.

Got computer skills? Excellent.

But adding a few more lines will never hurt. Showing commitment to community efforts, or any kind of voluntary work, will speak volumes about your personality. If you’re happy to keep showing up without getting paid, you must be dedicated and motivated; all qualities that universities and future employers will look favourably on.

Make you stand out in admissions

Whether you’re applying to uni, TAFE, or looking for work, chances are you’ll be up against a lot of other applicants. Some might have a higher ATAR than you, some may have relevant work experience.

How will you stand out? Well, what you choose to do outside of the classroom could make all the difference.

Volunteering is a great way to show you care about others and that you can manage your time well enough to balance a volunteer job with your other commitments.

Form connections and networking contacts

Volunteering could introduce you to people you wouldn’t have met otherwise. Those people could become friends, mentors, or your inspiration. The more you get involved with projects outside your school, the wider you’re casting your net.

You’ll end up with more contacts that could be helpful in providing you with paid holiday jobs, work experience, references, and even full blown job offers.

If you already know what you want to study at uni, try finding volunteer opportunities in those areas. For example, if you’re interested in politics, see if you can volunteer with your local politician. There’s every chance your volunteer experience could help you in your future endeavours. 

Personal development

When you’re at high school, chances are that you’re operating within a fairly limited social circle. You’ll be engaging with your family, school friends and teachers, and possibly a few friends outside of school.

Volunteering will introduce you to new situations and people, potentially really different to what you’ve known up until now.

You could:

• Increase your confidence
• Learn to communicate more effectively with different audiences
• Become a better listener
• Learn about your personal strengths and weaknesses
• Be more aware of and active about social justice issues

Positive impacts on your health

Studies have shown that volunteering could contribute to improved mental and physical health.

Increased physical activity, providing a sense of purpose, kicking goals, achieving good things, and focusing on other people’s problems rather than your own can create a “helper’s high”.

You could feel happier, less stressed and be fitter as well.

Feel great about yourself

So this is a bit cheeky, as it kind of ties in with number 6, but we felt it deserved its own spot.

When you volunteer you’re not only benefiting yourself, you’re having a positive impact on lots of other people around you too.

Potentially you’ll be helping an individual and an organisation, your community and subsequently you’re contributing to the wealth and health of a nation.

When you realise that your actions are so widespread, you might feel humbled and you should definitely feel proud of your contribution, it could definitely improve your self-esteem and feelings of self-worth.

Find a volunteering position that works for you

It’s ok if you’re not ready to commit yourself straight away. Start by having a look around your community, find out what the options are near you. See how much of commitment you’ll be asked to make, then decide if it’s something that you can fit in (and that you’d like to do).

Alternatively, you can even find opportunities to volunteer online.

Maybe you’d love to volunteer, but you can’t fit it in to your busy school term schedule. Why not see if there’s a way you can offer your help during the school holidays?

International Women’s Day – Equity and the Pay Gap

We celebrated International Women’s Day on 8 of March, with the theme of embracing equity.

The goal of this theme is to encourage people to think about why equal opportunities aren’t enough – people start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action. To put it more simply, we need to recognise the difference between equality and equity. Marin Health and Human Services explains it like this:

“Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.”

And so on the theme of equity, we thought we’d touch on another relevant topic: the gender pay gap.

What is the gender pay gap?

The Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency defines the gender pay gap as “a measure of how we value the contribution of men and women in the workforce. Expressed as a percentage or a dollar figure it shows the difference between the average earnings of women and men.”

It’s important to note that this isn’t the same as equal pay. It’s true that women and men are paid the same for performing the same role. What the pay gap refers to is the difference in average pay between men and women on a wider scale, and the factors that cause this to happen.

So why is there a gender pay gap?

There are lots of things that cause the gender pay gap. Here are just some of them:

• discrimination in hiring decisions, both unconscious and intentional
• the fact that women are more expected than men to take time off to care for children
• a lack of workplace flexibility to accommodate for caring responsibilities (this one affects men too!)
• female-dominated industries commonly having lower wages (such as healthcare and education)
• the fact that there are less women in management and leadership positions

The main factors are summed up nicely in this video by the WGEA.

Examples of the gender pay gap

We’ve gone and actually found some data to show that the pay gap is definitely real in Australia. We looked at data from the ATO on particular occupations, both male- and female-dominated, and compared the average salary of both men and women in these occupations. Take a look.

Not surprising, right? Interestingly, we can see confirmation that even in jobs where there is a significantly higher proportion of women, men still have a higher average salary.

So what can we do about it?

Let’s go all the way back to our original topic – equity.

From this information, it’s easy to see that focusing on equality in opportunity doesn’t result in equitable outcomes. Instead, we need to acknowledge and work on the social and economic factors causing this inequity in the first place.

This means employers should be encouraging more men to take time off work to care for children (and part of this includes providing equal access to parental leave for men). It means breaking down barriers around gender expectations and discrimination. It means supporting the women in our lives in all different ways, whether it’s about work, education, or health.

The goal of equity is to change systemic and structural barriers that get in the way of people’s ability to thrive – and at the end of the day, that benefits us all.

Early Entry Quick Facts

If you’re in Year 12 this year, you’ve probably already started thinking about university. But you don’t need to wait until the end of the year – early entry programs are more popular than ever.

Early entry gives you the chance to receive an offer to uni before you’ve finished your exams. This can give you peace of mind and help you be more relaxed during what can be a stressful time.

We’ve put together some interesting stats about early entry over the last year, and what you might be able to expect this year.

Download as a PDF here.