New research shows volunteering enhances employability and makes people feel good
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Volunteering has a large impact on employability as well as how good people feel about their social impact.
The research from the Lloyds Scholars Programme showed that 90% agreed that volunteering had massively increased their personal employability skills.
In fact most agreed that being a volunteer had increased a large set of skills including organisational and planning skills (88%), time management skills (79%) and leadership skills (78%).
91% also stated that they thought it had increased their people skills.
People found that they felt better about their standing in the community off the back of volunteering with 92% saying they would have not given as much time and skills to local community projects had they not been a volunteer.
More than 21 million people volunteer in the UK at least once a year and volunteering contributes an estimated £22.6bn to the UK economy.
The sectors Lloyds Scholars choose to volunteer in is diverse, including 53% giving time to children, youth and family organisations and 50% committing to community projects such as homelessness and counselling. Other volunteering interests included culture and heritage organisations (17%), environmental issues (15%) and sports organisations (15%).
Two thirds (67%) surveyed said they spent their time tutoring and sharing skills, instilling confidence in people’s aspirations, raising awareness for a cause and bringing an extra capable pairs of hands to a project in need.
Lloyds Scholars is Lloyds Banking Group’s award-winning social mobility programme that is having a positive impact on employability for over 600 students from lower income households. Lloyds Scholars offers talented undergraduates at its nine partner universities financial support, paid internships, professional mentoring and a wealth of opportunities to develop their employability skills. In return, all Scholars commit to at least 100 hours of skills based volunteering in their communities each academic year.
