News
Insight: essential youth sector analysis and reflection – Issue 5, 22 September 2010
22 September 2010
Exploring young people’s volunteering in a recession
New research from the National Youth Agency, to be published this week, explores the impact of the recession on young people’s involvement in and perceptions of volunteering. It looks at whether young people are more likely to volunteer now than before the recession, their motivations for volunteering, barriers and enablers to engagement and the role of volunteering as part of a pathway to employment. The research consulted with over 1,500 young people through focus groups, video diaries and an online survey. An additional piece of qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews was conducted at the same time with voluntary organisations to ascertain the impact of the recession on youth volunteering from their perspective.
The research concludes that the recession has had an impact on young people’s views of volunteering – almost one fifth of young people consulted agreed their views of volunteering had changed, with them becoming more aware of how volunteering could support them in moving into work. When asked about motivations for volunteering, the most common response was that ‘it looks good on my CV’, with 49% of young people involved in the research agreeing. Amongst young people who had never volunteered,one in three thought that mentioning volunteering in a CV could ‘help a lot’ in finding a job.
So what else does the research tell us?
The wide-ranging research also highlighted a number of other findings of note. Young women in the sample were found to be more interested in volunteering than young men (23% compared to 17%), and were more likely to have looked for volunteering opportunities in the last year. Young women also appeared to have a more altruistic motivation for volunteering – 80% of young women in the research agreed with the statement ‘volunteering is positive because it’s all about helping others’, compared to just 57% of young men. This is supported by research published by v which found that young women appear to be more concerned with helping others and contributing to society than young men who favour action-oriented activities. Young women in the NYA research were also more able to identify the benefits from volunteering, including social skills, self-confidence, practical work experience and knowledge of the workplace.
Our research found that young people who are not in education, employment or training were least likely to have volunteered and were also least likely to be motivated by work or training-related benefits from volunteering, whilst most likely to say they would be motivated by the offer of ‘getting something for free’. The organisations consulted in the research reported that budget and staff cuts meant that they were, in some cases, having to prioritise work with young volunteers who needed the least support.
Young people in the NYA research were also found to have contrasting attitudes towards volunteering accreditation. The second phase of the research which looked at the effect of the recession on organisations providing or broking volunteering opportunities for young people, reported organisations’ experience that while accreditation was important to some young people, others were not interested. Interviews with organisations found that some young people did not bother to log their hours for accreditation, and others were said to be uninterested in public recognition through award events. This appears to be at odds with young people’s perceptions of volunteering being attractive to potential employers, since accreditation would often support this. Organisations consulted as part of the research reported that marginalised young people also valued accreditation, particularly practical employment-related qualifications. This echoes findings from previous NYA research which found that formal recognition was particularly important for those who had little or no other evidence of achievement.
Focus groups for the research with young people found low levels of awareness of volunteering awards, especially among non-volunteers. Although official accreditation was seen as an advantage by the majority of young people in focus groups, some commented that awards were overrated and sometimes given without much effort.
Young people and the recession
The NYA research had a particular focus on the recession. It found that half of the young people consulted were already finding it harder to find employment since the economic downturn. This rose to four fifths of the young people NEET who took part in the research. Recent research concurs - the Prince’s Trust found that 70% of young people from workless families have struggled to find work, and a survey by the Jack Petchey Foundation highlighted that two thirds of 17-25-year-olds are worried about how the recession will affect their chances of getting a job.
The outlook for young people, particularly those least employable, looks bleak. New analysis of UK unemployment figures by Danny Dorling for the Prince’s Trust shows that the number of young people trapped in long-term unemployment has almost doubled in the past two years, despite the fact that the rate of youth unemployment overall appears to be stabilising. He explains this in terms of employers favouring those young people with the most qualifications and skills, leaving the more marginalised and vulnerable on benefits. The recession is also forcing young people to scale down their aspirations – many graduates are being forced into unemployment or less-skilled jobs, and those with fewer qualifications are moving into unskilled work.
This analysis was supported by the NYA research: organisations consulted as part of the research reported a noticeable increase in young volunteers over the last 12-18 months, and believed this to be, at least in part, due to the recession. They also believed that young people’s motivations are changing – young people are increasingly seeing volunteering as a way to boost employment-related skills, and making their CVs stand out in the context of increasing competition. Young people consulted also felt that competition for available jobs was increasing, leading them to be ever more concerned about ‘getting ahead of the competition’. Given that one in three of young people responding to the Jack Petchey survey said that ‘helping other people’ was a priority for the future and for many young people the instrumental and altruistic motivations for volunteering are mutually dependant, this suggests a growing role for volunteering as a pathway to employment. Further, there is a need for new solutions to respond to more diverse engagement in and motivations for volunteering.
NYA News
Comprehensive Spending Review
The Big Adult Society? Or do young people get a look in?
The National Youth Agency is making sure that young people are at the heart of the Big Society with the launch of a new document to help central and local government understand the role youth work places and the value it creates – in line with the spending review framework. By setting out youth work against the nine questions in the Coalition Government’s Spending Review Framework, the National Youth Agency has made an ‘offer’ to government - demonstrating the critical role of youth work in creating the Big Society.
The paper is being made available to officials at the Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Labour Party Conferences or can be downloaded for free from http://www.nya.org.uk/policy/comprehensive-spending-review-csr
Key extracts are being Tweeted by the National Youth Agency from Tuesday 21 September to generate a debate around the future shape of youth services. Follow @natyouthagency for latest updates.
NYA’s interactive broadcast takes place on Wednesday 29 September 2010 – all you need to know about talking to young people about their health!
The NYA is launching its revitalised online learning tools on 29 September 2010. In a first for the Agency, our FREE launch will be taking place in cyber-space.
About the National Youth Agency
The National Youth Agency works in partnership with a wide range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations to support and improve services for young people. Our particular focus is on youth work and we believe that by investing in young people’s personal and social development, young people are better able to live more active and fulfilling lives.
We deliver our work through training and consultancy, campaigning, publishing and on-line communications. Through our activities we want to ensure that young people have a strong voice and positive influence in our society.
Introducing @natyouthagency
The NYA continues to collate key youth issues news on our website at: www.nya.org.uk/news - please bookmark this page to keep up to date. If you have access to social media, you can follow daily news alerts via Twitter @natyouthagency and keep up with Fiona Blacke, NYA’s CEO - @FionabNYA.
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