www.wwv.org.uk

Have you ever wanted to volunteer but not been sure how to find a placement to suit your needs? Did you know that there are tens of thousands of placements throughout the UK and around the world for student volunteers? WorldWide Volunteering for Young People can help you find a volunteer placement that exactly matches what you want to do.

WorldWide Volunteering for Young People's on-line search and match database is a fun and easy-to-use way of sifting through hundreds of volunteer organisations and perhaps setting you off on the journey of a lifetime. It contains detailed information about over 1000 volunteer organisation with more than 350,000 placements throughout the UK and worldwide.
 

Responding to such questions as where do you want to volunteer? How long for? Who do you want to help? When do you want to start? What do you want to do? volunteers build a detailed on-screen profile of their ideal volunteer placement which is instantly matched against the requirements of all the organisations on the database.

Within seconds you could have information about a vast range of projects as varied as bird research in Bardsey Island Wales, helping the poor in rural Nepal and unearthing antiquities in the Middle East. Because the software allows you to search for activities that involve specific skills and interests - from music to computers - there is something for everyone on this essential resource.

A wealth of information is then provided about matching organisations. Projects last anything from one week to a year or more and can be found in virtually every country in the world. Cost need not be a problem either as placements range from those that cost nothing and even include a pocket money allowance to those for which a volunteer has to raise several hundred pounds or more. The program will ask you how much if anything you can contribute towards your volunteering experience. E-mail and web links to your selected organisations enable you to make further enquiries immediately. Gone is the frustration of wanting to volunteer but having no idea how to find the information that you need.

Volunteering can be helpful to students in all sorts of ways. It enables you to meet new people away from your home and school environment and brings all sorts of new challenges that are valuable in terms of personal development, broadening of horizons and sheer experience of the world. It can also be great fun.
 

Furthermore universities and employers both look favourably on applicants who have shown the enterprise and commitment to others that volunteering demonstrates. Details of prior or carefully planned future volunteering activity shine out of the personal statement (section 10) of a UCAS form. It can act as a tie-breaker between otherwise apparently equally applications. University admissions tutors testify to the value of volunteering and are convinced that volunteering as part of a well-structured year out reduces subsequent university drop out rates.

The same is true for employers who like candidates to have more than academic qualifications and frequently suggest that time spent on such activity is worth just as much as a couple more GCSEs. In this sense volunteering can count as valuable work experience. Volunteers tend to fit better into their new team and are more aware of the realities of day-to-day life than those who have not been as adventurous.

So, from every point of view volunteering is a great thing to do: you benefit, those whom you help benefit, and society as a whole benefits from the good things that you do. So whether you want to volunteer in the next door county or in a country on the other side of the world, now is your chance to get started.

www.wwv.org.uk