Why do you volunteer?
I’ve been volunteering since 2022, the same year I arrived in the UK. I was eager to explore the cultural and heritage sector in the country, which led me to start volunteering. My first role was as a front-of-house and exhibition assistant volunteer, through which I gained transferable skills in communicating with visitors and interpreting both contemporary exhibitions and historical collections.
During that time, I explored various platforms that deepened my understanding of the museum sector. One of these was the Museums Association and its associateship programme, which enabled me to focus on collections management through reading, networking and hands-on volunteering to apply my learning.
In 2023, I began volunteering with the National Trust as a collections care and preventive conservation volunteer. I then expanded my practice through additional roles at organisations such as the Hockey Museum, the Royal College of Physicians, Roma Support Group and, most recently, the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust. My experience has spanned collections care, documentation, cataloguing, archiving and researching.
What are the benefits of volunteering for you?
Volunteering has been a valuable opportunity for me to broaden my network, gain experience and develop my skills. It has allowed me to put theoretical knowledge, such as the Spectrum Standard and the Code of Ethics, into practice.
I’ve gained insight into different work strategies across various organisations, through which I acquired transferable skills including adaptability, keeping up to date with advances in the museum field, and integrating current thinking and best practices into my professional approach.
Additionally, volunteering is about more than just gaining experience – it offers great opportunities to socialise. Being part of varied team environments has improved my communication skills and helped prevent isolation.
What would you say to someone who is thinking of volunteering?
Some people believe that volunteering can undervalue you as a professional or diminish your experience. I don’t think that’s true. Volunteering is a mutually beneficial collaboration that allows you to offer support while gaining the experience and skills needed for future employment.
In fact, it can be a much more effective learning approach than taking a paid course. With so many learning materials available online, you can study any topic independently, and volunteering gives you the opportunity to apply that theoretical knowledge in a real professional setting without the financial cost.
If you are considering volunteering, go for it, and make sure to speak with staff members about your learning interests and the kind of work you would like to be involved in.
What could organisations do to make volunteering more accessible?
Having volunteered for almost three years, I have observed that in many organisations, volunteers are often given limited responsibilities. It is important to recognise that people volunteer for various reasons, and one of them is to gain practical work experience. Overly restricted duties can prevent volunteers from achieving that goal.
To make volunteering more accessible and meaningful, organisations should offer development opportunities that align with volunteers’ interests and capabilities, while supporting the organisation’s objectives and processes.
Involving volunteers in the full process of planning a procedure or a project, even through shadowing, can be far more beneficial than assigning isolated tasks with no context. Furthermore, depending on their approach to volunteer recruitment, organisations should place more trust in volunteers by allowing space for independent work and task planning.