The case for Work Programme volunteering

In the last few weeks the opportunity to encourage young people to get back to work has been a hot topic of conversation in the media. As a Volunteer Development Manager at Tenovus, I wanted to share my personal take on these schemes.

With unemployment rates in Wales indicating that two-fifths of all those unemployed are under 25 – above the UK national average – surely any opportunity for young people to reach their potential and gain some real, hands-on experience in the workplace can only be a good thing, right?

Perhaps not, given the backlash the UK government is currently receiving. So what, you may ask, is the problem?

The work placement schemes are aimed at 16-24 year olds currently in receipt of benefits to ‘volunteer’ to take up an unpaid placement for up to eight weeks.

Since starting at Tenovus two years ago, I haven’t got enough fingers on my hands or toes on my feet to count how many times a volunteer has confided to me that they worry that by volunteering they are jeopardising their entitlement to benefit and that they will be out of pocket.

So, in principle I find it difficult to disregard a scheme that promotes the exact opposite message that building experience is vital to gaining employment. Yet, I think that the scheme has not been fully thought out.

By only speaking with big businesses that can, arguably, afford to pay the wage of those on the scheme, the government has disregarded the need of third sector organisations across the country crying out for help and support.

Furthermore, and more importantly in my view, the definition of what is and what is not a volunteer has definitely got muddled somewhere.

As a Volunteer Development Manager, I meet positive and inspiring young people on an almost daily basis who see volunteering as a means to not only give back, but to really better themselves, their levels of experience and to boost their CV. Significantly though, they have chosen to volunteer of their own free will and have shown initiative and determination that someone who has been affectively forced to do work is unlikely to show. I think more work can and should be done in schools, in Job Centres and even at University to encourage volunteering as a viable and exciting option to get the skills they will need to get ahead in the workplace. Tenovus welcomes and is happy to support any development of this kind.

Forced labour is not volunteering at all and the UK and Welsh government-who are yet to comment on the backlash on the schemes-need to readdress this definition before the scheme can truly succeed and support the development of young people in the UK today.

Kerry Marland is a Volunteer Development Manager at Tenovus.