On skilled volunteering

Many organisations offer ‘adult gap years’, where participants spend time in Africa or elsewhere painting a school or undertaking basic conservation work. While such projects are often beneficial to the participants and rarely do any harm to the host community, many are vulnerable to the accusation that the work could have been done better by a local who needed the money.

Out of 25,000 Britons who volunteered overseas in 2006, some 62% were post-gap year. Until now, skilled volunteering opportunities have either been limited to people in certain careers (such as teachers, engineers or doctors), or have required a time commitment or a year or more (as with many VSO placements).

There is a clear need to ensure that the benefits to host communities stay at the forefront of volunteering projects. One cause for concern is that few short-term voluntary assignments aimed at the post-gap year market make any attempt to capitalise on the skills that these people can offer. A Tourism Concern survey suggested that 69% of UK volunteering organisations do not ask for any relevant qualifications from prospective volunteers. The majority of projects offered are in unskilled areas such as construction, where it is arguable that the job could be better done by locals who need the employment and income.

For those who are looking to volunteer overseas with some degree of work experience, this begs the question of whether the skills that they have acquired can be used productively during their trip. Plenty of opportunities exist for teachers, doctors, engineers and the like. But what about people who have a generic business background – perhaps in HR, or marketing, or financial management? A VSO survey indicates that 37% of people in the UK want to use their business skills to help people overseas.

Working with businesses is the best way to share skills, and it also creates long sustainable employment and wealth within local communities. Volunteers might be providing a specific consulting input, or more generalised mentoring support. Opportunities exist to volunteer for almost any timeframe, from less than a week to a year or more.

A skilled volunteering placement that allows employees to use their business skills in this way is a unique way of developing staff that also has significant benefits in terms of motivation, loyalty, recruitment and retention. It is a powerful way to demonstrate that your company is at the cutting edge of innovation in terms of corporate social responsibility and talent development.

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