If you think students spend all their spare time avoiding studying, going out with their mates and having a good time then you'd be right. Well our student bloggers do anyway. While they assure us they don't slack on the study, they've got a lot to answer for when it comes to enjoying themselves while volunteering.

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Tuesday Jan 10, 2012

In spring 2010 I had an epiphany

I had been studying with the Open University on/off since 2004 gradually trying to work my way towards the degree I'd wanted since I was a tween and was only a year away from achieving it. I always preached that I wanted the degree for personal development only and that it had nothing to do with changing career but my epiphany came from nowhere and struck me like a bolt from the indigo aether. Why COULDN'T the degree help me change career? It would make suitable sense to at least try. Oh but wait, the degree isn't a specific titled degree, it's an Open degree made up of a few subjects so how will I manage to convince potential employers that I'm able to switch career?

Even doing the Masters degree I subsequently made plans to do wouldn't be sufficient to convince employers that I was capable and had enough experience to make an effortless switch. So. If I can't get experience through university, and my current job offers nothing in the way of experience in the career I want to jump into (social policy research, just as a point of information) then how will I do it?

A second epiphany (I'm getting good at these)! Volunteer! I've got plenty of spare time to devote to a spot of volunteering and it's perfect for my needs.

Within a week of that revelation I had an application form in with my local council to be a school governor, I had initiated the relaunch of my local branch of the Open University Students Association (the OU's students union) and was on my way to experience central! Both of these positions have proven worth their weight in gold. Being a school governor takes up very little time (say one or two 2 hour meetings a month during term time) but the council have given me truck loads of training to help me in the role and I've been able to plague them with questions regarding governance. Being a volunteer for OUSA is very similar to being a school governor too, it's just that it's for a university instead so issues of policy and governance are at the forefront which is so appropriate for my intended career it's laughably perfect.

The roles take up as much or as little time as I can afford them. My involvement with OUSA has been put on the backburner while I get stuck into my Masters course but I'm picking it up again now, and my work as a governor is about to hit the big time as I start to think about dissertation topics (most likely something to do with education policy).

More recently I've signed up for a charity which runs community workshops, but I've signed up to train as a workshop host. This came about partly because the Open University emailed me about it and suggested I get involved, and partly because I'm looking for a way to improve my confidence and give me more experience of speaking in public so hosting workshops would help with that.

I love that I've been able to cherry pick bits of volunteering which suit my needs. Because of my volunteering I got accepted onto a Masters degree for which I didn't even meet the entry requirements. The programme team said that my voluntary experience was more than sufficient to 'bridge the gap' so here I am, studying at a Top 3 university. I can literally say that volunteering has been the driving factor in me changing my life, and I'm not about to quit any time soon.

Posted by Carrie Anne Walton ( 3:56 PM )
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