Volunteering
All work experience will be valuable in your search for employment, and traditionally students have found work experience through part-time work, placements, internships, vacation work. However, students can also benefit from volunteering and voluntary work experience.
Why volunteer?
Volunteering can be:
- a great way to gain experience, particularly if you haven't worked before or you need experience in a sector where there's little paid work available
- flexible, as you can volunteer for a day, a week or longer, and sometimes on evenings and weekends
- helpful for getting paid work in the future, as it develops transferable skills and shows that you're willing to give up your time for others or for a cause
A wide range of organisations welcome volunteers, and all major towns and cities have volunteer centres with online listings to help you find local opportunities.
Where to find roles
You can find opportunities, as well as more information, on:
- Sheffield Volunteering (University of Sheffield Students' Union)
- Alumni volunteering
- Voluntary Action Sheffield
- Sheffield Volunteering Centre
- Sheffield Council
- NHS Volunteering
- Sheffield Directory
Things to consider
- If you have a contract and you are required to work regular hours and undertake specific duties you should be paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW) as a worker and not a volunteer. Voluntary workers working for a charity, voluntary organisation, associated fund raising body or statutory body are exempt from NMW guidelines.
- An unpaid internship should have an emphasis on training and should not be used by the employer to complete work or projects that would normally be undertaken by paid staff.
Voluntary work: May have a description of responsibilities and specified hours, but must not be a replacement for a previously paid role. Work is mainly for a charity, voluntary organisation or a statutory body.
Volunteering: Often states that there are flexible working hours. No obligations for your time commitment or working hours/days, eg the role does not have fixed days or working hours and your volunteering hours can be agreed according to your availability.
International students: It’s important to bear in mind that for international students on a student visa, the UK Visas and Immigration service (UKVI) defines voluntary work and volunteering differently; voluntary work does count towards their visa working hours limit, whereas volunteering does not.
Your combined voluntary work and paid work should not exceed the maximum number of hours as permitted by your visa and study level.