VSO Ireland helps volunteers to improve their skills and gain new ones working with local people in developing countries, writes Ciara O'Brien
THERE ARE many reasons why people get involved in charitable organisations, but furthering their careers isn't usually a vital consideration.
However, one organisation is helping volunteers to do just that, by improving their skills and giving them new ones as they work alongside local people in developing countries.
Founded in Britain in 1958, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is an international development charity which recruits volunteers and fundraises from offices in Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, Kenya, the Philippines, India and Ireland. It carries out its work in 35 countries in Africa and Asia.
VSO Ireland was established in 2004 and is headed by Malcolm Quigley, who was appointed director after spending time as a VSO volunteer himself.
After working for two years as a management adviser to the refugee return service in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, Quigley wanted to continue his involvement with the organisation, so he returned to Ireland to take up the new division's top position.
VSO Ireland is not looking for just any volunteers; it is seeking experienced professionals in management, marketing, PR, education, health and some technical areas. Volunteers must have at least two years' experience in their chosen area and be between 25 and 75. Typically, they are aged 41 and have at least five years' post-qualification experience.
"We work with local partners on the ground. They're at the centre of the work that we do. We formulate with them the plan, the programme, the objective, the volunteer placements, and then we look to find the volunteer for that job," says Quigley.
"We get a lot of people who are near or in retirement. We particularly encourage people who are retired to apply because they are the ones with the most life skills."
Not everyone is deemed suitable for the placements. Some 50 per cent of volunteers pass the initial application stage; only three-quarters of these pass the interview and assessment stage.
Successful volunteers typically go overseas for about two years, with many extending their stay to finish projects in which they have been involved.
There are many benefits to getting involved. "Typically what volunteers get out of it is a renewed sense of what's important, who is important to them, and a great satisfaction from knowing that they really made a difference on an individual basis," says Quigley.
Carrying out volunteer work in the challenging conditions often encountered in developing countries can give employees new skills, including leadership, teambuilding, teamwork and listening skills. "It's such a different environment; volunteers have to really listen to what's required of them," says Quigley.
Volunteers can also find themselves using their work-acquired skills in ways they never envisioned. For example, one project in which VSO is currently involved is a hospice for people with HIV and Aids in Soweto.
A Canadian VSO volunteer is working with this organisation to build up its financial management capacity, help it to apply for more funding and manage its current funding. "These were skills that this organisation did not have," says Quigley, "but it's the volunteer's job to now train them."
VSO is also working with the Ethiopian government to develop a teacher-training diploma, a project which came about to help combat the high drop-out rate in schools. "Often teachers were not fully trained; they weren't completely skilled for the job they were hired to do," says Quigley.
"With the Ethiopian government, we placed volunteers within the department of education, alongside counterparts. The objective of the volunteer was to work with the department to develop the national diploma. Other volunteers then work alongside the universities throughout Ethiopia to train in colleagues in the universities to deliver the diploma."
VSO says that its volunteers do not displace workers, but provide support and training to allow organisations to continue the work after they leave.
Quigley says Ireland's public sector is quite open to sabbaticals, for example paying social contributions for teachers while they are overseas with an organisation such as VSO, and allowing volunteers to walk back into a job on their return.
With this in mind, VSO Ireland is recruiting companies to act as partners, allowing employees to go overseas to volunteer for short periods, usually three-month placements.
Accenture, for example, has signed up with VSO Ireland.
"What Accenture gets in return is employees who are more likely to stay with the company but, more importantly, have greater skills, who understand more about the business process and how business is done," says Quigley.
"That's a skill that's very difficult to get if you are based in an office here in Dublin or Cork."
