Is Volunteering the Cinderella of the Employability Ball?

by Dr Ken Robinson, MAPS Capstone unit coordinator in psychology, Edith Cowan University, WA

If your university is anything like mine, then there is a lot of talk about getting graduates job ready. Many recall wryly the article by Atkins (1999) when he referred to graduates being “oven-ready and self-basting”, and since that time much has been written on what might improve graduate employment.

Although full-time graduate employment is the mantra favoured by the politicians in Canberra, even this has proved problematic. There is massive global youth unemployment, with close to 75m unemployed young people in 2012 (ILO, 2012). Recently, it was revealed that full-time graduate employment has hit a 20-year low (Tay, 2014). Only 71% of last year’s bachelor degree graduates are finding full-time jobs within four months of leaving university, a drop of about 5% on the previous year (Graduate Careers Australia, 2013). Lowest performers were the visual and performing arts (48%), life sciences (52%) and social sciences (56%). As you might predict, this has re-sparked national debate on whether uni is worth it (eg. Featherstone, 2014; Sloan, 2014). The impact on federal government budget deliberations can only be imagined.

The temperature is rising in the baking ovens that represent our universities. A report from McKinsey (Mourshed et al., 2012) bags educators and employers, saying that they don’t crossover into each other’s space, and suggests that employers should shape curricula.

In this sobering context, university students are wising up to the importance of volunteering. In a competitive employment market, volunteering provides the recent graduate with an employment edge over their peers. The Cinderella volunteer does have an invitation to the ball, and it is pleasing to note that there is a research project that has recently been funded by the Office of Learning and Teaching, headed up by Dr Megan Paull, of Murdoch University, here in WA.

The facts surrounding volunteering (in the US called Service Learning):

– It seems that volunteering really is a GOOD THING, and it is known that volunteering and civic engagement increases helping behaviour, and a sense of social responsibility (Rivers & Moore, 2008). Moreover, a recent meta-analysis has demonstrated that volunteers are likely to live longer, be healthier, stress less, have more satisfying relationships compared with those who don’t (Okun, Yeung & Brown, 2013).
– Those students ‘in the know’ are definitely volunteering. Affluent graduates are more likely to be ‘players’ in that they are actively involved in career enhancing activities (Bathmaker, Ingram & Waller, 2013; Davies, Mangan, Hughes, & Slack, 2013; Greenbank & Hepworth, 2008).
– Volunteering is a high-impact educational experience. Finley (2011, p.3) reported on the relative effect size of high-impact educational practices on final year students deep learning, gains in general education, gains in personal and social development and gains in practical competence.
– Moreover, they are reporting that the high-impact educational practices have a cumulative effect, so that the more of these experiences students undertake in their degree, the greater the effect.

Volunteering, as service learning, is a relatively common component of US capstones and degrees, but is much less often seen in Australia. It isn’t clear why this is the case, especially given that volunteering activities can span the full range of activities that we might associate with industry placements, projects, and simulations. Aligned with program learning outcomes, there are gains in professional and personal skills, social responsibility and community engagement, all of which map to common graduate attributes. Although the effect of volunteering during university has not yet been mapped to employment outcomes, given the impact on graduate capabilities it seems likely that the Volunteering Cinderella might even be the belle of the ball.

Useful websites:

Home


http://volunteer.com.au

References

Atkins, M.J. (1999). Oven-ready and self-basting: taking stock of employability skills. Teaching in Higher Education, 4(2) 267-280.

Bathmaker, A-M., Ingram, N., & Waller, R. (2013). Higher education, social class and the mobiliation of capitals: recognising and playing the game. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34(5).

Davies, P., Mangan, J., Hughes, A. and Slack, K. (2013), Labour market motivation and undergraduates’ choice of degree subject. British Educational Research Journal, 39: 361–382. doi: 10.1080/01411926.2011.646239

Featherstone, T. (2014) Is uni worth it. March 6, 2014, Canberra Times. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/small-business/managing/blogs/the-venture/is-uni-worth-it-20140305-3464f.html#comments

Finley, A. (2011) Assessment of High-Impact Practices: Using findings to drive change in the Compass Project. Peer Review 13: 29-33.
Graduate Careers Australia (2013). GradStats Employment and salary outcomes of recent higher education graduates. Dec. 2013.

Greenbank, P. & Hepworth, S. (2008). Improving the career decision-making behaviour of working class students: Do economic barriers stand in the way? Journal of European Industrial Training, 32: 492-509.

International Labour Office (2012) The youth unemployment crisis: a call for action. Resolution and conclusions of the 101st session of the International Labour Conference, Geneva.

Mourshed, M., Farrell, D., & Barton, D. (2012). Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works. McKinsey Center for Government.

Okun, M.A.; Yeung, E. & Brown, S. (2013). Volunteering by older adults and risk of mortality: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 28(2), 564-577. doi: 10.1037/a0031519

Tay, L. (2014) Full-time graduate employment in Australia has hit a 20-year low. Business Insider Australia. Jan 10, 2014 http://www.businessinsider.com.au/chart-full-time-graduate-employment-in-australia-has-hit-a-20-year-low-2014-1

Sloan, J. (2014) Studied lessons in career suicide. The Australian, Feb 15, 2014 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/studied-lessons-in-career-suicide/story-fnbkvnk7-1226827599569#

Volunteering Australia (2011). National Survey of Volunteering Issues. www.volunteering Australia.org