This document discusses research on social mobility through volunteering. It reviews evidence that certain types of volunteering can contribute to mobility for young people by providing work experience, skills, and connections. However, access to high-status, competitive volunteering opportunities tends to be unequal, with more educated, wealthy individuals having greater access. Remaining questions include precisely testing how different types and durations of volunteering impact mobility, and further evaluating schemes to open access to elite volunteering for disadvantaged groups.

1. Social mobility and volunteering:
identifying opportunities that count
Dr Bryony Hoskins, Senior Lecture,
University of Southampton

2. Set the seen and frame the debates
• Certain types of volunteering could contribute
to mobility for some young people
• Review of the existing evidence
• Identify outstanding questions

3. Why the interest in volunteering,
employment and mobility?
• NGOs need to find finance in crises
• Politicians need solutions to get youth into
work
Why volunteering?
• Similar aspects to work
• Learn work culture and skills
• A form of apprenticeship

4. Debates on inequality of access to
volunteering
• ‘economy of experience’ when everyone has
a degree - the critical edge
• Used by middle class parent to build kids CV
and give ‘enhanced personality package’
(Heath 2007)

5. Youth’s attitudes to volunteering
Motivation for full time volunteering
• Gaining work experience and training
• Building up CV and qualifications
• Internships or unpaid work experience were likely
to be more valuable in forwarding their career
Greatest barrier
• Money (live at home and be supported by
parents to do it)
(V commissioned 2009 Mori Pol & focus groups)

6. How volunteering differs from work or
work experience
Aims
• Altruism, solidarity, helping others, active citizenship
• Without the purpose of financial gain
• Learn attitudes and values human rights, equality,
solidarity, public spiritedness, duty, importance of civic
engagement and self-efficacy

7. How volunteering differs from work or
work experience
Not designed as work experience or adult training
programmes for employability
• Definition tension (work experience schemes)
• Often no accreditation or qualifications
• Volunteering for the unemployed can be useful anyway
to build citizenship values & attitudes

8. Evidence: longitudinal surveys
Association with early volunteering experience
• Completing higher education 
• For those in employment an association with
higher occupation status 
• But not being a NEET 
Surveys lack nuanced questions on volunteering
NFER using British Household Panel Data
(provisional findings)

9. Who volunteers?
Characteristics of the volunteer (across many
studies)
• Highly educated
• Wealthy
• Older (over 50)
• Female

10. Who has access to different types of
volunteering?
Less formal, less
public, learning
not explicit and
experiences less
recognised on a
CV
Formal, public,
organised,
structured, can be
certified or clear
learning outcomes,
Competitive
Types of Volunteering
Education levels
Income
Occupation levels
Inspired from research results from
Bulloch, S. & J. Mohan 2012 using
citizenship survey

11. Access to elite ‘bonding’ volunteering
Elite volunteering (bonding social capital)
– professional associations, political parties, trade unions,
religious organisations
– NEETS 60% less likely to do this
– Even less if a young carer
More open associations (bridging social capital)
– welfare organisations, local community action, third world
development, human rights, environment, peace
movements, health organisations
– No statistical difference between groups
(Eurofound research on NEETS and volunteering)

12. Evidence: Gap years
• Hierarchy of gap year experiences for
university places and employability
– Volunteering abroad better than UK
– Doing poorly paid jobs to pay for university least
well viewed
• City and guild qualification
(Heath 2007)

13. Evidence: volunteering for those on
incapacity benefits
• Many activities undertaken by the volunteers not
developing relevant skills for labour market (specific
manual tasks)
• Operational needs of charity prioritised over skill
development of volunteers
• Volunteers appreciated the aspects which were not like
employment
– lack of compulsion
– flexibility over time
– Less stressful
– Felt valued
(PhD by J. Lee)

14. Evidence: evaluation of pilot study for
the national citizenship service
• Middle class kids
– Similar previous experience
– took on the leadership roles
– gained confidence and felt more part of the community
• Working class kids
– In particular those with responsibilities of care at home
took a back seat in the community action projects
– Continued mistrust and fear in community
– Loss of contacts with people from other social
backgrounds
– Less impact
(Strathclyde university)

15. In what type of volunteering?
Greater recognition of informal
volunteering
Take place abroad
Run with elite
organsiations
Organise specific opportunities
for disadvantaged groups only
Formal, public,
organised,
structured, can be
certified or clear
learning outcomes,
Competitive
Less formal, less
public, learning
not explicit and
experiences less
recognised on a
CV
Types of Volunteering
Education levels
Income
Occupation levels

16. Can opportunities be opened up for
disadvantaged youngsters?
• Competitive advantage (only for disadvantaged)
• High status
• Clear learning outcomes that match employment
needs of high status occupations
• Certified
• Organised with elite organisations who will help
build social capital (political parties, professional
associations, business & trade unions)
• Conducted abroad (seen to build independence)

17. Remaining questions
• Test the extent that access to these certain types
of volunteering can create mobility
– More precise questions (type and duration) in
longitudinal research on types of volunteering
– Evaluation of schemes that open access to elite forms
of volunteering
• Further analysis on National Citizenship Service
and delivery for disadvantaged groups
• Further research on what is actually learnt on
voluntary activities