Voltage Programme: Progression, Signposting and Improving Employability of Young Volunteers
Organisations delivering the Youth Music Voltage programme were keen to ensure that volunteers had an experience which developed their skills and provided them with information, advice and guidance about progression opportunities.
This page is part of a resource collection for practical guidance around providing volunteering opportunities.
The Voltage programme sought to increase young people’s readiness for education, employment or training.
Some challenges with providing this level of support were:
- Ensuring adequate time within the volunteering experience to factor in signposting tailored to each individual
- Finding something suitable to move volunteers onto
- Embedding accreditation into the volunteering experience
- Working with the right partners to ensure a breadth of signposting relevant to the interests of the young people
Some of the ways in which Voltage partners included signposting and ensured the development of skills to increase employability were as follows;
At New Roots part of the volunteer training and induction included shadowing music workshop leaders. This offers the potential for the young people to not only see different styles of music making delivery but it also allows for different types of musical genre to be experimented with. These experiences go on to provide young people with sound role models, working with these musicians also gives them an opportunity to discuss their journey in to music workshop leadership. It can also inspire young people to change their approach to music making to expand their musicianship and the explore working with different instruments and techniques that they may have never considered. Within the group sessions there has been an informal meeting the musicians to discuss in further detail the development of their music career.
The Hive now actively seeks to employ young volunteers that have improved their skills as part of the volunteering programme, engaging on projects as music workshop leaders and as paid shadowing workshop leaders. The organisation now regularly employs a young volunteer as a marketing assistant and duty manager also others as sound engineers for live music nights and as regular music workshop leaders. The Hive has witnessed young people develop and refine their skills as they further their involvement with the organisation. Being consulted on many key issues regards funding and programming events.
At Streetvibes Youth in London our volunteer programme became very successful and we often have to make hard decisions about who to accept onto the programme. Even worse, it can be difficult to exit young people from the programme as, over time, they develop a sense of ownership and don’t appreciate that it is a time-bound placement. We have met this challenge by offering – when resources allow – progression support sessions to help volunteers identify other local volunteer opportunities as well as to understand how to present the skills they have gained from volunteering to get a job or an apprenticeship.
At Ark T in Oxford contact with more experienced music leaders has enabled volunteers to access realistic careers advice and see a career in music beyond the visible but examples of recording and performing artists. Attending Music Leader training, working alongside technical crew, and being involved in recording sessions and promoting events have given volunteers first-hand experience of music-related work. Volunteering has provided more hands-on and self-directed ways of learning for young people, for instance by sitting in and assisting with recording sessions and actively asking questions, one volunteer developed his skills in recording and music production and was later assisted and advised in setting up his own home studio by one of the music leaders
At The Sage Gateshead the volunteers were able to take part in a range of experiences. The list of placement opportunities is drawn up together by Voltage staff members and the Associate Young Ambassador. We simply look on the event programme which details all events, workshops, conferences, weddings etc taking place over the coming months. We try and narrow this list down based on what the volunteers have said they would be interested in attending and based on which events have staff with the most capacity to assist in providing the volunteers with a meaningful, structured volunteer experience. The aim of these placements is that the volunteers get a chance to experience different job roles first hand, take on roles of responsibility and are assisted and encouraged to make informed decisions about their future career paths.
We have a number of courses that we are able to sign post volunteers to, including the Introduction to Community Leadership course, the BA Community Music degree, the Community Music trainee and advanced traineeship. We successfully signposted one volunteer onto a DJ course run by an external partner to whom The Sage Gateshead is signed up to receiving their e-bulletins. The volunteer lived outside of the required catchment area but we were able to negotiate on his behalf, explaining how keen he was and providing a reference. This ultimately secured him a place on the course.
An example of progression from The Sage Gateshead, Summer Tyne Festival, July 2009
"One of our Voltage Volunteers expressed an interest in stage managing. We organised for him to work alongside the stage manager for the prestigious Summer Tyne Festival held at The Sage Gateshead outside on Performance Square. The volunteer was responsible for ensuring that artists were back stage when they needed to be and even had a go at introducing some of the acts. This was a massive achievement for this particular volunteer as he is known for being quiet and doesn’t often put himself forward for opportunities. Following on from this opportunity we have found other events for him to develop his stage managing skills further".
Throughout the 9 Voltage delivery partners, a number of volunteers achieved accreditation:
"This ranged from Youth Achievement Awards (Asdan), vinspired awards and Young People’s Arts Awards. As part of the support and guidance, volunteers were actively encouraged to complete accreditation. It was challenging to work towards some awards, especially the Youth Achievement Award, given the time it took to compile the paperwork and evidence. For many volunteers, the experience and CV building was more important than achieving an accreditation".
Wirral Youth Theatre commented on the challenges with completing the Silver Arts Award: "While young people were interested in achieving this accreditation and saw the benefit to them as an individual and artist, it became difficult to find time within sessions (on-top of the training programme) to develop portfolios and evidence. As a consequence elements of the award have not been completed and no one has finished the award at this time. However, we are offering young people the opportunity to complete the award outside of the Voltage programme".
SoundLINCS suggests the following tips for successfully achieving accreditation with young volunteers;
- Engage young people with the idea of accreditation when first meeting with them
- Work with young people at the earliest stages of their volunteering to map out an individual plan for accreditation (if appropriate for the young person)
- Arrange regular reviews with each young person about their individual plan
- Following each review, identify training or mentoring needs that will support each young person to maintain their individual plan
- Arrange a group event to celebrate each award gained