Volunteerism involves offering your time and services with the core intent of helping others without expecting remuneration.
While research has proven that those who give of themselves will gain from improved physical and mental health, the benefits it offers to our careers are often overlooked.
In this article, we will explore how engaging in volunteer work can strengthen your social and human capital for supporting your career development.
1) Enlarge your Social Network
Participating in volunteer work can enable you to meet diverse groups of people, form new friendships and enlarge your social networks.
These social networks and relationships, which constitute your social capital, may provide additional support and resources for your career, such as access to new connections and open doors to new career opportunities.
2) Attend Volunteer Training
Some social organisations may require new volunteers to attend mandatory training, often at no cost, before allowing them to perform their roles.
For instance, when I first volunteered as a trainer at a non-profit organisation, I had to attend a range of mandatory training to learn about the cultural backgrounds of the beneficiaries, the curriculum to teach, and several facilitation techniques before I could deliver the lessons.
Such training is an excellent opportunity to learn new knowledge and skills, which constitute your human capital, to enhance your performance in volunteer settings and in your career.
3) Receive Guidance from More Experienced Others
Some volunteer roles (e.g., event organiser) may require you to work and collaborate with more experienced others (e.g., staff, vendors, and fellow volunteers) who may offer you guidance to achieve the goals.
This may include, for example, receiving guidance on some 'tricks of the trade' that could allow you to perform your role more efficiently and effectively. Where appropriate, these ‘tricks’ may likewise be applied to your professional work.
Essentially, receiving such guidance may extend the scope of your learning to the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) – a space that represents tasks that you cannot perform on your own but can be attainable with help and guidance from more experienced others – and enrich your knowledge and skills.
4) Opportunities for Practice
While theoretical knowledge is essential, gaining practical experience is what differentiates novices from experts. Participating in volunteer work is one way that offers opportunities for you to engage in practice-based learning to apply newly acquired knowledge or hone existing skills.
For example, during the early stage of my career as an adult educator, I volunteered to design and deliver training programmes for some non-profit organisations to secure opportunities to practice and hone my learning design and facilitation skills.
These opportunities are valuable, especially when opportunities for practice are unavailable elsewhere, such as at your workplace.
5) Develop your Soft Skills
Volunteer work may allow you to develop different soft (or transferable) skills that are highly sought after by employers and yet could only be developed through practice.
Some of these soft skills include:
Personal skills: Adaptability, efficiency and reliability
Communicational skills: Ability to explain and initiate a discussion with others
Interpersonal skills: Ability to work in teams and organisational skills
Key Takeaway
Integrating volunteerism into the fabric of your daily life can be a win-win solution to making meaningful contributions to society while serving as a strategic investment in your career development.
By leveraging the opportunities offered by volunteer work, you can enhance your social and human capital to position yourself for greater success in your career endeavours.
About the Author
Darren is a learning strategist and career practitioner passionate about helping individuals, teams, and organisations unlock their full potential and achieve peak performance. As the Founder of WiP, he offers bespoke learning solutions for organisations to enhance and sustain their competitive edge. Together with his team of consultants, Darren also provides training programmes to help individuals develop their career capital, learning ability, and power skills for professional growth.
Click here to connect with Darren on LinkedIn!