‘That extra sparkle’: students’ experiences of volunteering and the impact on satisfaction and employability in higher education

Barton, Emma; Bates, Elizabeth; O'Donovan, Rachel

doi:10.1080/0309877x.2017.1365827

Cited by 34 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…A number of studies, which are relevant for this research, have described the different effects volunteering can have on students' employability and made reference to strengthening confidence (Astin, Say, & Avalos, 1999;Barton, Bates, & O'Donovan, 2017;Millard, 2020) and building social capital, such as networks (Bourner & Millican, 2011). Other studies describe the development of hard and soft skills, knowledge and occupational expertise (Barton et al, 2017;Jackson, 2012;Souto-Otero, Ulicna, Schaepkens, & Bognar, 2012). Bourner and Millican (2011) found evidence that volunteering helps students explore their strengths and talents, which can lead to greater clarity about future career plans.…”

Section: Voluntary Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

How individual experiential backgrounds are related to the development of employability among university students

Eimer

Bohndick

2021

JTLGE

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University students have different backgrounds and varied experiences. This diversity has frequently been examined with regard to performance in Higher Education. However, much less attention has been paid to its significance concerning employability. The investigation of this potential relationship is the focus of this study. In this research, 429 students at a German university were assessed on the strength of their employability, which here is defined as a multi-factorial construct. The Career Resources Questionnaire (CRQ) was used (Hirschi et al., 2019) which is a comprehensive instrument that analyses the self-assessed strength of twelve essential career resources amongst respondents. The results were then related to several individual preconditions: existing or non-existing commitment to voluntary work, sporting activity or sporting inactivity and being a first-generation student (FGS) or a continuing-generation student (CGS). These characteristics were chosen, because they are commonly represented in the student population. In addition, some socio-economic implications are discussed. Significant differences were found between the participant groups. Some results correspond with the findings of existing studies, others lead to new explanatory approaches. Based on the overall findings, recommendations for career counselling as well as for seminars in career orientation are given. For example, students' experiences outside the university environment can be used in career counselling to strengthen perceived employability or a supportive approach to first-generation students can lead to the development of career-related strengths.

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Section: Voluntary Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

How individual experiential backgrounds are related to the development of employability among university students

Eimer

Bohndick

2021

JTLGE

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“…Encouraging student volunteer activities has been reported as having three main aims: volunteering encourages resilience, moral engagement and student employability (Holdsworth & Quinn, 2010). Certainly Barton, Bates and O'Donovan (2017) suggest that HEIs can promote employability through volunteering activities. The researchers highlight that for psychology graduates, gaining voluntary experience can be particularly pertinent, with the majority of graduates reporting that their volunteering activities facilitated career growth and enhanced employment prospects.…”

Section: Employability Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholder perception of student employability: does the duration, type and location of work experience matter?

2019

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Student employability is a key aspect of higher education, with multiple strategies utilised by Higher Education Institutions in an effort to support the employability of their graduates. Despite this little work has been done to examine, and compare, different types of work experience. To advise students appropriately it's important to understand the factors that might influence the perceived value of work experience. The current study investigated three aspects of work experience: type (internship or volunteer role), location (extra-or cocurricular) and duration (six months or two years), and compared stakeholder (student, academic, employer) perception of work experience. The study utilised an experimental vignette design, presenting 175 participants (62 students, 57 employers, 56 academics) with CV excerpts that varied according to the variables of interest. Quantitative and qualitative items were also presented to explore perceptions of work experience. The results indicate that extracurricular experience was viewed more favourably by all stakeholders. The type of experience was also an influence, with internships viewed more positively when the job role was a high level graduate role (research assistant). The duration of experience did not produce a main effect. There were no significant differences in stakeholder perception of work experience. The qualitative data indicated that the relevancy of both experience and degree topic was important for employability, along with interpersonal and professional skills. These findings may support educators in providing students with advice regarding their activities outside the classroom, with a particular emphasis on extracurricular and internship experience, tied to student career aspirations, recommended.

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“…Another significant positive consequence of volunteering remarked by the literature ( Barton et al, 2017 ; Kim and Morgül, 2017 ) is that it could be an opportunity to understand one’s own inclinations, making more effective study or work choices in the future. In this light, volunteering has been proved to be strictly linked to employability development ( Knepper et al, 2015 ; Păceșilă, 2015 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning to Be Employable Through Volunteering: A Qualitative Study on the Development of Employability Capital of Young People

Giancaspro

Manuti

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Over the last decades, consistent research showed that voluntary work could be considered as a tool for professional development and concrete employment: volunteering could be either experienced as a desire to improve career opportunities or to acquire new skills. The study aimed to investigate voluntary work as a context of informal and non-formal workplace learning and vocational guidance, useful to develop skills and abilities, namely the capital of personal and social resources, that could promote future employability. Participants were 38 young volunteers who experienced the Universal Civil Service, a national Italian program addressed to young people aged up to 28 years, giving them both the opportunity to engage in social activities useful for the community and have the first contact with a working context. In line with the objectives of the study, participants were invited to describe their volunteering experience in a diary, highlighting if and to what extent this context contributed to enhancing their employability capital, namely the asset of skills, knowledge, and networks acquired, that they could transfer to a future professional domain. The narrative data collected were examined through diatextual analysis, a specific address of discourse analysis designed to catch the relationship between enunciators, text, and context of the talk. This qualitative analysis allowed us to investigate the meanings young people attributed to these activities. In light of these results, the paper contributed to investigate volunteers’ perceptions about the conditions that could best foster this specific kind of workplace informal and non-formal learning and at proposing a qualitative perspective on the analysis of the employability capital they developed.

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‘That extra sparkle’: students’ experiences of volunteering and the impact on satisfaction and employability in higher education

Abstract: Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria's institutional repository 'Insight' must conform to the following fair usage guidelines.

Cited by 34 publications

References 41 publications

How individual experiential backgrounds are related to the development of employability among university students

How individual experiential backgrounds are related to the development of employability among university students

Stakeholder perception of student employability: does the duration, type and location of work experience matter?

Learning to Be Employable Through Volunteering: A Qualitative Study on the Development of Employability Capital of Young People

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