Volunteering gives you a chance to:
Impress interviewers
Make contacts and sharpen your skills
Show what you're made of

Impress interviewers

According to a survey commissioned by TimeBank, the national volunteering campaign, almost three-quarters of top UK businesses prefer to recruit candidates with volunteering experience on their CV. The survey also found that two-thirds of employers thought that voluntary work experience could be more valuable than paid work experience.

Make contacts and sharpen your skills

"The benefits of volunteering for new graduates are huge, particularly when trying to get into competitive areas of work. Employers value the soft skills - such as communication, organisation, time management and use of initiative - obtained through volunteering. It is also an effective way of making contacts who can help you get paid work," says Azi Kathrani, a development worker at Millennium Volunteers, a Government-funded initiative.

Show what you're made of

Those who face additional problems have even more to gain. Skill, the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities, has just launched a project to turn the perception of disabled people passively receiving help from volunteers on its head.

"Disabled graduates still face discriminatory barriers and are only about half as likely to be in employment as the non-disabled. Experience of working as a volunteer provides the opportunity to prove ability and demonstrate potential. It's also invaluable for improving self-confidence," says Skill's chief executive Barbara Waters.

So what do you need to do before signing up?

1 Think about what you want to get out of it
Doing it for free doesn't mean you're doing it for nothing. It's essential to decide what you want to gain when choosing which organisation to give your time to.

2 Start by looking at experience that you're missing
Then find out which type of organisation could help you fill that gap. Organisations that use volunteers generally offer a similar range of roles to a commercial organisation. They need individuals who can help with marketing, finance, PR, training, recruitment, and IT systems, as well as people to work directly on the cause they are promoting.

3 Check what training is available
Organisations that use volunteers are happy to be seen as a stepping stone to employment. They accept this is a trade-off - your time and expertise for the opportunity to develop skills to boost your chances of getting paid work. Many support that by providing access to courses, accreditation and networking events that strengthen your CV.

4 Be eager to take on more responsibility
You might have to be a jack-of-all-trades in charitable organisations, but look upon it as a chance to get experience in other fields. You might have to wait years to get the same exposure in a paid job, where jobs are more narrowly defined.

5 Be clear about the time you are able to give and stick to it
If you give too much time, you could start feeling frustrated. Too little and you won't build the real experience you need quickly enough to move on.

Or are you considering a move to a charity or non-profit organisation for good? Check out the jobs on offer here.

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