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Young volunteers Volunteering is a great way for young people to meet people and to build up experience for college, university or for a career. If you are looking to use volunteering to help you gain experience for your Personal Statement or your future career we would suggest you consider getting some careers advice. If you are young person aged 13-19 then you can get advice from Connexions Tyne and Wear or Connexions Direct. If you are aged 20 or over you can get careers advice from your nearest Next Step adviser. If you are at college or university then you can also use your careers service which will be based within your Student Services section. Many of the volunteering roles we promote have a lower age limit. This is due to the nature of the roles and the experience and skills needed to carry out the roles. This is also influenced by the health and safety risk assessments which are carried out for each role as well as restrictions required for insurance purposes. The majority of roles are aimed at people aged 18 and over due to the reasons mentioned above. It is unlikely that any roles that require a CRB check will be open to anyone under the age of 18. The support for young volunteers is changing. In the last 10 years there have been considerable support for volunteering aimed at young people aged 16-24 through schemes like Millenium Volunteers and V-involved teams. However these projects are no longer funded and the Voluntary Sector is waiting to find out if the current Coalition Government will fund any new volunteering projects aimed at young volunteers. No matter what age you are, if you are volunteering then there should be a structure in place to support you and safeguard you in your volunteering role. You should be made aware of a named person within the organisation of whom you can ask questions to relating to your volunteering. |
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