Volunteering | Teaching English | British Council

Theme: Voluntary work
Lexical area: Jobs

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
There are currently more than 22 million people in Britain who work as volunteers for many different organisations. Many employers nowadays favour job applicants who have some experience of voluntary work and many young people appreciate this. Having some form of voluntary work on your CV can often improve your chances of getting a job. Some young people in the UK who take a ‘gap year’ before starting University use part of their time to do some voluntary work, whether in the UK or abroad. There is a week dedicated to all volunteers in the UK every year. This year, in 2008, Volunteers’ Week will take place at the beginning of June.

Task 1 introduces the topic of jobs and leads into the concept of voluntary work. Task 2 gives students the chance to talk to each other about their own experiences of volunteering. Task 3 is a light-hearted activity which looks at some bizarre voluntary jobs that really do exist in the UK. Task 4 is a reading taken from a Trend UK article which goes into more detail about the current situation of volunteering in the UK. Task 5 gives students some discussion statements to talk about in groups and Task 6 is a creative task for groups to design posters to encourage young people to volunteer in their community.

1. Jobs: Important factors
Ask some of the students what jobs they hope to do in the future. Then ask them to think about the factors that are important to them when thinking about jobs. Ask students to brainstorm as many ideas as they can and to write them down. If you prefer, do a group brainstorm on the board. Their ideas may include: money / well-paid, you like the job, near your home, don’t have to wear a uniform, satisfying job, it’s inside / outside, working with people, creative etc. etc..

When students have written the top three factors ask them if one of their top three was to do with money. This will lead you nicely into the idea of voluntary work. Make sure all the students understand the concept of voluntary work.

Task 1 Jobs: Important factors
Think about the factors that are important to you when you think about jobs. Write them here:

What are the top three most important factors for you?

Compare your answers with a partner.

2. Mini survey
Tell the students they are going to find out about their classmates by doing a mini survey about volunteering. There is only one question to the survey so the idea is for students to find out as much information as they can by asking the two follow-up questions and making notes. When they have gathered the information, get some feedback from the whole group.

Task 2 Mini survey
You are going to ask five of your classmates a question about voluntary work. Try to get as much information as possible and make notes.

Names
Have you ever done any voluntary work?
If so, what did you do?
If not, would you like to?

Now tell the group what you found out.

3. Bizarre jobs for volunteers
If you are working with a low level group don’t show them the whole list of jobs in task 3, just choose three or four of the bizarre jobs and explain them to the students using mime and pictures. Then ask students to think of some other bizarre jobs. They too can use mime and pictures to explain their ideas for bizarre jobs.

Task 3 Bizarre jobs for volunteers
There are some very strange jobs you can do if you want to be a volunteer in Britain. Read these job descriptions and decide which ones you would like to try!

1. Toad warden – help toads cross the road when they migrate for the annual breeding season.

2. Tandem bike rider - be the front rider on a tandem bike so blind people can enjoy cycling.

3. Pet carer – look after pets when elderly owners go into hospital.

4. Festival volunteer – work on a charity stall at a music festival - and get a free ticket.

5. Neighbour dispute mediator – work with communities to resolve local clashes.

6. Lifeboat crew member – go out on emergency rescues as well as giving training sessions on using boats.

7. Radio producer – to make programmes for community radio station.

8. Death row pen pal – make friends with people facing the death penalty in the U.S.

9. Beach watcher – organise cleaning the beaches and do beach surveys.

10. Emergency relief worker – support rescue workers and evacuees in the UK in rest centres.

11. Support worker for prisoners' families – Offer support to families of people in prison.

12. Kids theatre volunteer - work with children to do theatre plays and musical productions.

13. Resuscitation trainer – teach basic life support skills in community centres and schools.

14. Green gym environmental volunteer - get fit through conservation activities like planting trees or improving footpaths.

Adapted from: http://www.volunteersweek.org.uk/press_unusual.htm

Now think of some other unusual volunteering jobs that you would like or hate to do.

4. Reading: Volunteering for love?
This is a reading task for higher level students. Before you start, divide the students into two groups, A and B. Tell the groups that they are responsible for explaining the vocabulary in their column to the other group when they have read the text and had time to look up the words in a dictionary or ask you the meaning. Before moving on to the discussion questions ask representatives from each group to clarify the vocabulary for the whole group.

Task 4 Reading: Volunteering for love?

Group A	Group B
To give up time To recruit people To win a bid What’s in it for me? To squeeze in	A sense of altruism This selfish age Self awareness A life partner Speed-dating

Read the text and then discuss the questions that follow with a partner.

Volunteering – for love?

Working as a volunteer can help you to meet new friends or even find romance in unexpected circumstances.

Benefit the community
Doing some form of voluntary work has never been more popular with British people. Over 20 million people were engaged in voluntary activities in 2004. Volunteering means giving up time to do work of benefit to the community. It can be based in the UK or overseas. Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) has long recruited people in the UK to fill usually professional roles in developing countries. Volunteering can take many forms, from working with children with learning difficulties, in an animal hospital, or planting trees. Now that London has won its bid to host the 2012 Olympics, up to 70,000 volunteers will be needed to help ensure the games are a success.

What's in it for me?
Volunteers can be anyone of any age. Students and full-time workers often manage to squeeze in some volunteer work. But what motivates volunteers? Some do it out of a sense of altruism while others find they have free time available. But in this selfish age more are asking what they can get out of it. Some mention self-awareness. As Pukul, 28, who works in communications in Manchester, says, 'you're no longer doing it for yourself but for someone else'. Many mention the opportunity to get to know people they would not normally meet.

Do you come here often?
A relatively new phenomenon is the hope of meeting new friends or even a life partner through volunteering. In a recent survey 20% of 18-24 year-olds and 8% of over-65s said their love lives had improved since they began volunteering. ‘Volunteering is what speed-dating promises but never fulfils - a way of seeing a lot of truth about someone you've just met in a short a time as possible,’ says Mukta Das. The same poll found that nearly half of volunteers enjoyed improved health and fitness, a quarter had lost weight - especially those working with children or doing conservation projects - and two-thirds felt less stressed. So, it seems volunteering may improve your life – you may even find the person of your dreams.

Written by Magnus of the British Council's TrendUK team.

Do you have any organisations that are similar to VSO in your country?
Why do young people usually decide to volunteer?
Do you think that volunteering is a good way to meet people? Why/why not?
Do you agree that working as a volunteer can help you to keep fit?

5. Discussion statements
This task is for higher levels who can express their opinions reasonably easily in English. Cut up the statements and give one set to each group of students. Ask one member of the group to read out the statement and discuss with the group members. As the students are speaking you can monitor the groups and make notes of good language use that you hear and also of any mistakes you hear. Use these notes at the end to give students feedback on their speaking.

Task 5 Discussion statements
Discuss the following statements in small groups.

Voluntary work is a form of slavery!

I believe that voluntary work is an excellent way for young people to get work experience.

Voluntary work is a good way to meet new people.

I like helping other people.

The world would be a better place if more people did voluntary work.

Voluntary work is a waste of time. You need money to survive.

I don’t have enough free time to volunteer.

The government should pay for some of the jobs that volunteers do.

6. Poster campaign
This is a group task for lower levels and/or younger learners. Tell students that they are going to design a poster to encourage young people to do voluntary work. They should think of a motto or a heading for the poster. You could display them around the school or your classroom at the end.

Task 6 Poster campaign
You have been asked to design a poster to encourage young people to do some voluntary work in your community. The posters will be put up in your school. Plan your poster here:

Internet links

VSO’s site.
http://www.vso.org.uk/volunteering/ Voluntary Service Overseas.

This is the Community Service Volunteers site for the UK’s largest volunteering and training organisation. http://www.csv.org.uk/

This is the Volunteers’ Week site for the UK’s annual celebration of the work volunteers do. http://www.volunteersweek.org.uk/

England’s volunteer development agency.olunteering England.
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/

The National Trust - information about volunteering to work in conservation.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-trust/w-volunteering.htm

By Jo Budden

Attachment	Size
volunteering.pdf	73.11 KB