Swansea University - Voluntary/community sector opportunities

Opportunities in the voluntary/community sector

This page covers unpaid volunteering opportunities as well as paid career options in the sector.

Voluntary work can be a good way to break into a particular field, and in some cases may be the only way in.

The reference book "Charities Digest" available in the Centre provides an excellent UK list, and the links below are to key organisations' websites, some of which have many other links on their pages.

The following organisations are useful sources of information on paid opportunities with charities rather than volunteering:

Charity Works is a graduate development programme for the charity sector:  http://www.charity-works.co.uk  

A Opportunities and vacancies are available through our vacancies database in the main Jobs section of this site as well as the above links. The Wednesday edition of the Guardian is also a  good source of further information.

Career pathways for graduates into the voluntary/community sector:  This document was written by Fiona Christie, careers consultant at the University of Manchester, and her research was funded by HECSU.  It provides key information about the types of paid opportunities that exist and how to find them, and addresses issues from the points of view of applicants, recruiters and careers advisers.  It also includes a large number of interesting case studies about real people’s experiences of working in this sector, together with lots of links to useful websites.

 

Topics covered include:

 

  • Is voluntary experience critical?
  • What is the pay like?
  • What are the opportunities for training and career progression?
  • Types of jobs people do in charities
  • Recruitment and selection processes
  • The qualities that charities look for in candidates
  • Competition for jobs and career moves from other sectors
  • Facts and figures/background information
  • The policy context for the voluntary/community sector.