With the cost-of-living crisis affecting us all, many students are deciding not to volunteer. Instead, they’re prioritising part-time work to ensure that they have enough money to pay the bills (and we get it – it’s tough right now!).

But what many students fail to see are the long-term benefits of volunteering. That, whilst they might not get paid, through volunteering they’re developing their skills and enhancing their CV, ready to enter their chosen sector after graduation.

We caught up with Charlene, a third year CCCU student studying Public Health and Health Promotion. As a full-time student and mum of four, she’s not one to shy away from a busy schedule!

Here, Charlene shares with us why she thinks that it’s a great idea for students to volunteer alongside their studies.

Many opportunities through volunteering

“I started volunteering in my third year as I wanted to gain experience in my sector. I volunteer for two charities: Keep Talking Services, which is a befriending charity, and Pact, which stands for Prison Advice and Care Trust.

"Pact is a charity that supports prisoners and their families as people with convictions go through the criminal justice process.

"Within seven months, Pact actually offered me a job as a Family Support Worker, which involves working with prisoners to rehabilitate them and help them with family life for when they are released from prison.

"I was so surprised that they offered me a paid role because I wasn’t expecting it.

"I also still volunteer for Keep Talking Services and volunteer outside my working hours at Pact, helping with the Family Days for prisoners and their children – I love seeing the inmates playing with their children and connecting with their families.”

Choosing a clear direction

Before starting her volunteering at Pact, Charlene was unsure which direction to take with her career. Initially, she thought big – wanting to change policy in government to enact proper care and reform for the most vulnerable in society, she wanted things to change.

But she soon realised that going straight into this after graduation would’ve been difficult.

Then, when she started volunteering for Pact, she found the direction that she was looking for.

“The volunteering roles themselves are what led me down this specialism. I’m currently writing my dissertation on the exploration of segregation in prisons.

"If I hadn’t had embarked upon volunteering, I would never have found what I was truly passionate about.

"I came onto this course with such grandiose ideas of rewriting policy in Parliament, but I’m 35 and I’ve got four kids! I thought that this was going to take a while, so I then reflected and focused on starting on a smaller scale.

"Now I have the experience with Pact, I realise that I want to start my own charity working with men and women who have recently been released from prison. I want to work with them to help them get used to their family dynamics and to continue to support them after they’ve left the prison system.

"With this extra support, the reoffence rate will decrease even further because they’ll be able to re-enter the family unit with more of an understanding of how to healthily navigate their family, which can be tough after being away for a long time.

"I mentioned this to my lecturer, Dr Nicole Holt, and she was wholly supportive and offered to help me as she knows people who can help me start setting up this charity.

"So, once I’ve finished my dissertation, this is what I’m going to do.

"And I couldn’t have done anything like this if it wasn’t for volunteering and the help of the staff at CCCU.”

The benefits of being a volunteer 

“Volunteering has so many benefits. Yes, you may have to work part-time because everything is so expensive right now, but if you can find just a couple of hours a week to volunteer, this will massively impact your employability prospects upon graduation because you’ll have direct experience.

"If you want a career change, then volunteer to retrain. This is why I chose to volunteer. Before starting university, I was a carer. I had no experience under my belt, but after volunteering with both charities, not only do I have the experience, I now have a paid role.

"So, I say to students, if you can afford to take a couple of hours out of your week to volunteer, do it because it can open so many doors for you for when you graduate.”

 

We wish Charlene all the best on her future endeavours! It’s great to see that through volunteering, she found a clear direction for where to take the next step after she finishes her degree.

If you want to know more about how to become a volunteer at CCCU and where you can find roles, then find out more on our volunteering page. You can also find roles on the CCSU volunteering page.

As a CCCU student, you’ll benefit from support with volunteering throughout your course. Whatever you have in mind, you can access the Careers and Enterprise Hub where the team will be on hand to help you get the role that you’re looking for.