Transferable skills upskilling through volunteering

Put your office work skills and transferable skills to good use while progressing your office career through the many volunteering opportunities that are available. 

When you are already busy, when you have children at home to care for and when you feel like all of your efforts should be going towards getting a job or progressing your career, the thought of dedicating what time you do have to volunteering can feel a little counterproductive, but the benefits of taking on volunteering opportunities are bigger than you think, especially when you have office work skills to offer.

Through volunteering opportunities, you can provide vital help to people in need, worthwhile causes and the community while building your office career, developing your transferable skills, connecting with the community, finding new friends and looking after your mental and physical health. 

It is true that the more you volunteer the more you will benefit from it, but volunteering doesn't have to be a long-term commitment or take up a large amount of time, even what feels like the smallest commitment can have a huge benefit for you and the organisation you are helping.

10 ways that volunteering can benefit you

Put your existing office work skills to use

Volunteering opportunities can help you build upon and develop the office work skills and transferable skills you already have while using them to benefit the greater community. This is a great way to practice your skills, put them to use in different circumstances to what you might do in a corporate office. To really master a skill, you need to be able to apply it to any circumstance and environment. For instance, being good at selling is great and it is a highly desirable skill to have if you have the confidence and communication skills to sell anything to anyone. This unerring confidence in your abilities is built by putting your skills to work in a variety of environments and industries.

Learn new office work skills or transferable skills

Many volunteering opportunities provide extensive training opportunities that you can put to great use in your office career. For example, you could become an experienced crisis counsellor and learn effective active listing techniques while volunteering for a women’s shelter or you could become proficient at researching while donating your time as a museum docent or conservationist.

Try out a new career

Volunteering offers you the chance to try out a new career without making a long-term commitment. If you are unsure which direction you want to take your office career in over the longer term, you could take on a variety of shorter volunteering opportunities in varying industries and sectors to find out which you are most passionate about.

Impress employers & build career experience

To build an office career and get the job opportunities you want, you need to show potential employers that you are the best person for the job. You will put yourself ahead of the competition if you can show that you have relevant and recent industry experience and knowledge, bonus points will come from showing that you were proactive in gaining the experience for yourself. Volunteer at an organisation that does the kind of work you’re interested in and you might also connect with professional organisations and individuals who could prove to be helpful to you in your longer term office career.

Counteract the effects of stress, anger, and anxiety

Helping and working with people can have a profound effect on your overall psychological well-being. Being sociable and making meaningful connections with other people is a great stress reliever. Working with animals has also been shown to reduce stress and anxiety.

Build up a social circle and support system

Volunteering opportunities will help to keep you in regular contact with others who enjoy and feel passionate about the same things that you do. Surround yourself with proactive and enthusiastic people and you will create a solid support system that pushes you to do your best and embrace opportunities.

Volunteering makes you happy

Human beings are hard-wired to give to others, knowing that you are helping others releases a shot of hormones and stimulates brain activity that makes us feel good. The more we give, the happier we feel.

Increase your self-confidence

Doing good for others and the community will provide a natural sense of accomplishment, pride and identity. The better you feel about yourself, the more likely you are to have a positive view of your life and strive for those future career goals.   

Volunteering provides a sense of purpose

It’s not all just about building a long-term career, those who have retired but want to return to work in a small capacity can find meaning, direction and purpose by helping others. Whatever your age or life situation, volunteering can help to get you out of the house, take your mind off your own worries, keep you mentally stimulated, and add more get up and go to your life.

Volunteering helps you stay physically healthy

If you are out of work, you could find yourself staying at home quite a bit. Once you are in a routine of staying home with no real purpose to get out and about it can be hard to find the enthusiasm and drive to stay fit, healthy and active. Volunteering opportunities help you to stay physically and mentally active, you would be surprised just how much you walk and move around when you are happily fulfilling meaningful tasks at your voluntary placement. 

Unsure what skills you have that will be useful to a voluntary placement? 

The most important things you can offer a voluntary placement are:

• Your time
• Your enthusiasm
• Your desire to help

Valuable transferable skills from your previous work placements

• Learning
• Reading
• Writing
• Researching
• Administrative
• Team working
• Brainstorming
• Creativity
• Multi-tasking
• Problem-solving
• Typing
• Communication
• Telephony skills
• Reporting

What volunteering opportunities are available?

NHS Volunteer Responders

The health service in England has put out a call for volunteer responders to help medical staff with tasks such as delivering medicines from pharmacies; driving patients to appointments; bringing them home from hospital; and making regular phone calls to check on people isolating at home, visit NHS Volunteer Responders to sign up.

Reach Volunteering

A great organisation for those who hope to offer their office work skills to a voluntary placement. Reach Volunteering matches people with specialist professional skills to charities who need their help.

The Trussell Trust

The Trussell Trust food bank network have set up their own online schemes to match volunteers with food banks in their area.

British Red Cross 

Register with the British Red Cross for general volunteer roles with charities and community groups, you could even register as a Red Cross Reserve to be called upon in times of crisis. 

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NVCO)

The NVCO Volunteer Centres are local organisations that provide support to volunteers and the organisations that involve them. If you want to find an opportunity in your local area, this could be the ideal place to start. NCVO have a great Volunteering Centre finder on their site.

Volunteering Matters

This organisation develops and delivers high impact volunteer-led solutions across the UK, they engage more than 23,000 volunteers and 115,000 beneficiaries every year through more than 100 active programmes across the UK. Visit Volunteering Matters for more information on how to join their organisation.

If you are trying to think out of the box and reach out to smaller local organisations directly to offer your assistance, then consider some of these places who may just be hoping for an extra pair of hands:

• Community theatres, museums, and monuments
• Libraries or senior centres
• Service organisations such as Lions Clubs or Rotary Clubs
• Local animal shelters, rescue organisations, or wildlife centres
• Youth organisations, sports teams, and after-school programs
• Historical restorations, national parks, and conservation organisations

Wherever you choose to volunteer and no matter how much time you have available to offer, maximise the opportunity, enjoy the process and make plenty of friends and acquaintances along the way.