Up for a fun, challenging new experience? Help others and your career by volunteering.
Volunteering can help your career. If you do not have much work experience or you’re after a change, it’s a way to learn new skills. You’ll also build your confidence and meet lots of new people.
Finding a placement which fits you and helps you develop is the important part and we're here to help you find the perfect volunteering option for you.
Who will you meet? Consider if they can help you build your network or provide a reference.
What do you want to get from it? The right placement will give you valuable, relevant experience and can help you develop your skills.
You can find placements for anything from a few months to a few hours. Decide how much time you can give.
Try to find a role which suits your strengths. You’ll enjoy it more if it plays to your natural talents.
Find out what they want you to do. Is there training or a qualification involved?
There are lots of different ways to volunteer. You just need to know where to look and we're here to help you do that.
Your local Volunteer Centre can help. Their advisers can chat to you about what you want to do, and help you find a role to suit you.
You can also try:
Project Scotland matches you with a placement, where you can develop skills and make a positive contribution in your community.
The Saltire Awards are the Scottish Government's way of celebrating, recognising and rewarding young volunteers in Scotland. You can gain nationally-recognised certificates, signed by Scottish Government Ministers, for the volunteering you do.
If you volunteer through either of these schemes, you can also bag some Young Scot Rewards points.
You can also find out more information about gap years on our site.
If you want to get a bit of experience in the health sector, you can volunteer with the NHS. If your interest is in mental health, SAMH has volunteer vacancies across the country.
Events like fun days, bucket collections, festivals and sponsored walks need lots of volunteers to help visitors, answer questions and give directions. Volunteer Scotland also lets you find opportunities linked to events like this.
If there's a particular charity you're interested in, browse their website or get in touch to find out what’s coming up.
One benefit of volunteering is that it helps you learn new skills. Learn more about your skills, how you can develop them and demonstrate these to employers.
Learn more about skills
Another benefit of volunteering is that it gives you referees for your CV and job applications. Learn how to lay out your CV and job applications with your experience.
Build a CVYou can volunteer while receiving benefits as long as you’re not getting paid for it and you’re still able to satisfy all of the conditions of your benefit. For your volunteering to be recognised, you must be volunteering for an organisation or group. We've got some information that may answer your questions.
There’s no limit to the number of hours you can volunteer if you’re receiving benefits, as long as you can still spend the amount of time that you’ve agreed to on searching for a job.
You must tell your work coach what volunteering you’re going to do before you start doing it. You’ll need to tell them how many hours you plan to volunteer, what you’ll be doing and when the volunteering will take place. You’ll need to provide evidence of your volunteering too and keep your work coach up-to-date if your hours change.
You must be willing and able to:
Yes. You may be entitled to expenses for travel, childcare costs and meals. What expenses are available depends on the organisation you’re volunteering for.
Volunteering should not affect:
You can find information on Citizens Advice Scotland and Gov.uk.
If in doubt, ask a careers adviser, staff at your local volunteer centre or a Jobcentre Plus adviser.