human traffic - Demos · Human Traffic Skills, employers and international volunteering Gillian Thomas. Open access. ... to the new norms of uncertainty are vital contributing factors

Human TrafficSkills, employers and international volunteering

Gillian Thomas

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Contents

Acknowledgements 6

Executive summary 7

Research background 11

1. Skills, employability and the labour market 13

2. International volunteering: definition, context, and attitudes 21

3. The employer viewpoint 28

4. The volunteer experience 42

5. Closing the gap: conclusions and recommendations 55

Notes 63

This page is covered by the Demos open access licence. Some rights reserved. Full details of licence conditions are available at www.demos.co.uk/openaccess

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Tom Bentley, Katrina Nevin-Ridley, Holly Crane, TheoVeerkamp, Phillip Bowen, Eddie Gibb, Matt Bell, Selina Fox and all theresearch participants for their invaluable help during the project.

Gillian ThomasNovember 2001


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Executive summary

1. Profound changes in the world of work, such as the proliferation ofknowledge-rich jobs, globalising markets and rapid advances in tech-nology, are opening huge skills gaps in the UK workforce. The highestdegree of skills gain is required not among the low-skilled workforcebut among the professional and managerial levels, where effectivemanagement, dissemination of information and ideas, and adaptationto the new norms of uncertainty are vital contributing factors to theeconomic success of the UK. This new economy is bringing a growingemphasis on how people work, not just what they know. In turn, thismeans that the ‘higher order’ skills normally associated with self-managed workers and entrepreneurs, such as effective communication,rapid adaptation, networking and collaboration, are now essentialskills for organisational workers and professionals.

2. Employers and government are deeply concerned about this ‘higherorder’ skills gap and are investigating ways in which to incorporate life-long learning and ongoing professional development into adultworking lives. However, any real headway in this type of career inno-vation is difficult to achieve in an economy where accreditation ofhigher order skills is poor, and where organisational structures andcareer paths, particularly in the public sector, are inflexible and deeplyingrained.

3. Solutions to the higher order skills gap are being sought among thetraditional models of education and learning, such as training courses,whereas more innovative answers are largely ignored. Internationalvolunteering, despite its increasing popularity among professionals and


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its ability to accelerate learning of higher order skills, is not currently partof this skills gap debate, although the need for more progressiveapproaches to workforce development suggests that it certainly should be.

4. This research offers evidence that international volunteering is atangible way of developing the required higher order skills. Yet returnedvolunteers find it increasingly difficult to utilise these skills effectivelyon their return to the UK workforce. The research highlights that themajority of employers do not recognise international volunteering asa career development episode or as a valuable training ground forhigher order skills. Rather they see it as time away from a proper UK-based career and therefore do not understand the relevance of thevolunteer’s skills base to their employability. This barrier to recognis-ing the value of international volunteering is on account of a combi-nation of deeply rooted UK perspectives, a misperception of what inter-national volunteering actually involves, and a barrage of practicaldifficulties in incorporating non-traditional experiences and learninginto archaic organisational structures and career paths.

5. As a result of these factors, international volunteers find themselvesin a ‘skills trap’ because, although they have the very skills the economyrequires, employers do not recognise them. At an extreme level volun-teers find that ‘volunteering’ on a CV will count as a negative. Ingeneral, interview experiences gloss over international volunteeringassignments, opportunities to refresh on new developments are unavail-able, and their overall employability value has decreased. When volun-teers do successfully re-enter the job market with existing or newemployers, a lack of employer involvement and poor work-based systemsof evaluation ensure that they are able to transfer and utilise theirnewly gained skills only at a very localised level and in an unstructuredway.

6. International volunteers work and live with local counterparts andcommunities and aim towards specific goals using a developmentalmethod based on collaboration and exchange. The people-based natureof their work, and the immense cultural and environmental adaptationrequired to do it, acts as a powerful catalyst in the acquisition of

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Executive summary

sophisticated levels of higher order skills. A detailed analysis of datafrom returned volunteers and their employers identified the top tenskills acquired and enhanced as a result of international volunteeringexperiences, the top three of which were:

● global awareness● adaptability ● interpersonal skills.

7. The report highlights a set of three key workforce opportunities thatwould help lead organisations away from problems of employee reten-tion, motivation, skills gaps and closed mindsets in an innovatorymanner:

1. career path innovation, responding to the new modular, ratherthan linear, approach to careers via provision of a varied set ofcross-fertilising training, experiences and opportunities

2. championing diversity, creating a culture of open minds andglobal awareness which is broader and more significant thannarrower definitions of equal opportunities

3. nurturing new leadership, promoting individuals who are able tocreate change via new collaborative methods of empowering othersand the effective communicating and devolution of ideas.

Currently only employers who are ‘volunteer advocates’ are takingadvantage of the excellent match between these opportunities andinternational volunteering.

8. These opportunities are most pertinent to the public sector, whosemodernising agenda is currently being hindered by problems of retain-ing demotivated staff, inconsistent policies for diversity and interna-tional recruitment, and an acute shortage of individuals with effectivehigher order skills. A more innovative and structured approach to inter-national volunteering could reap real benefits for the public sector, asit was here that employer goodwill towards international volunteering,although currently only theoretical, was at its highest.


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9. It is clear that both the higher order skills gap and the public sectorcrisis need urgent attention. This report argues that internationalvolunteering can play a vital part in pioneering the essential workforcedevelopment required in a changing and globalising world by provid-ing much needed higher order skills and creating a precedent of careerpath innovation and global perspectives. However, before this oppor-tunity can be realised, the gap of understanding between internationalvolunteers and their employers must be bridged. Our main recom-mendations are:

1. redefine organisational diversity and equal opportunities policiesto include broader concepts of cultural openness and global aware-ness

2. link volunteering explicitly to career development and createshared objectives between employers and individuals

3. government support for self-managed careers throughout the UKeconomy

4. establish continuous learning and reskilling for volunteerssupported by volunteer sending agencies and employers

5. introduce employment services for returning volunteers in theform of a recruitment agency trading in global human resources.

These recommendations will go some way towards creating a commonsense of global community, which is ever more important in a climateof worldwide economic change and ideological conflict.


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Research background

Extensive qualitative research was undertaken among three groups:

● returned volunteers (who had volunteered overseas for at least sixmonths; taken from a spread of male/female, age, professionalgroups and volunteer sending agencies)

● employers (a spread of public/private sector)● experts (academics, consultants, development organisations and

labour market specialists).

The research took four main forms:

● depth interviews ● focus groups and seminars● observation at assessment and training days● desk research.

We spoke to 60 individuals during the research process. The split was30 returned volunteers, fifteen employers and fifteen experts. Theemployers were either directors or human resources personnel, or haddirect experience of managing returned volunteers. The volunteerscame from a range of different volunteer sending agencies. Names ofvolunteers quoted in the report have been changed.



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1. Skills, employability and thelabour market

We are a workforce in crisis. Year on year, employers report a greaterneed for skills. The public sector is in the middle of ruinous workforcecrisis. Workforce churn is at an unprecedented level and senses ofloyalty to particular organisations or careers have plummeted.

The public sector especially is under enormous pressure. Recentreports have shown an estimated shortfall of 40,000 qualified socialworkers and nearly 10,000 secondary school teachers.1 Younger people’sinterest in working in the sector is in decline, and those already in thesector report inflexible structures and unmanageable pressures whichare driving many away.2

Skills levels in the UK are alarmingly low. One in five UK adults isfunctionally illiterate.3 Competitiveness is suffering. Output per headis 40 per cent higher in the USA, 20 per cent higher in France and 10per cent higher in Germany than in the UK. 4 Skills shortages are notconfined to low status, manual jobs. Professionals too are suffering froma lack of adaptation to new demands in the workplace. It is well knownthat doctors unable to communicate effectively with patients are nolonger protected from criticism. Highly qualified managers will facenon-cooperation from staff if they display bad leadership. Teachersunable to adapt to change will not gain respect from their pupils. Thereis a growing consensus in the employer and educational communitiesthat it is these non-technical, non-traditional skills such as communi-cation, adaptation and collaboration at a professional level that are thekey to a truly excellent workforce. But there is a lack of agreement about


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how to develop these skills in the workforce, or even how to definethem.

Drivers affecting the nature of workMore than ever employers need workers who can thrive on widerchanges in economy and society and contribute actively to innovationand restructuring in the workplace. Profound shifts at this socioeco-nomic level are both driving the workforce crisis and placing an everhigher premium on highly skilled workers.

Advances in technology, and an increase in knowledge-based working,are having an ongoing impact on the economy and the way we work.The displacement of services and industries to other parts of the worldis accelerating. A recent study from IDC predicts US companies willspend more than $17.6 billion on offshore outsourcing in 2005, andGartner analysts predict accelerating growth in this global trend.5

Organisational structures are evolving. Royal Dutch Shell now regardsitself as a ‘living enterprise’ which is an ‘open system’.6 Such languageis common in an economic environment now populated by flatterorganisations, where job roles and hierarchies are blurred and objec-tives met through cross-functional, cross-fertilising teams. Within thiscontext, employees are valued on the knowledge and perspective theybring – and the relevance and application of this information to theiremployer.7

Contemporary values mean that people place more emphasis onsocial and ethical considerations when choosing products to buy ororganisations to work for. Twenty-five per cent of UK graduates nowexpress a desire to ‘contribute to society’, and 55 per cent want to builda balance between their personal life and career.8 Employees expect tobe able to express their values in work, and internal employee interestgroups are in favour. Corporate social responsibility projects aregrowing in scope and popularity and increasingly involve employees infinding ways to give back to society.

Demographic change also impacts on working patterns in the UK.As a population, we live longer, learn more and earn more than everbefore. Over the last ten years young people have become more likelyto continue their education past school leaving age. Those past retire-ment age are still actively involved in economic and leisure pursuits.

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Skills, employability and the labour market

In parallel in the workplace, training and development are increasinglyimportant aspects of life for employees.9

An increasingly diverse workforce is a feature of working life in multi-cultural Britain and a specific objective (though difficult to meet) formany public and private organisations. A steady flow of workers to andfrom the UK is set to increase. Recruitment from abroad is an impor-tant source of new entrants to the public sector. In the year to March2000, for example, 7361 nurses and midwives from abroad registeredfor the first time – an increase of 48 per cent over the previous twelvemonths.10 These features of globalisation are fraught with contentiouspolicies and debate.

The implications of these trends are many. For educated individuals,occupying mainly white-collar and professional roles, the main impli-cation is that there will be a far wider range of choice, autonomy andcreativity in their working lives. Many of the most able young gradu-ates are breaking ground by managing their own careers. In ‘Mostwanted? The quiet birth of the freelancer’,11 John Knell examines thegrowth of highly skilled professionals in the workforce who choose tomanage their own careers as freelance consultants rather than becomedirect employees. Another report explores a related trend in a newgeneration of workers who are redefining the boundaries between workand other areas of life.12 More individuals proactively seek internationalexperience to broaden their skills and world view. A recent Guardiansurvey showed that working internationally is a career goal for almosthalf of British graduates.13 Choice and change may bring freedom andbroader horizons, but they also bring uncertainty and pressure. Thoseunable to adapt rapidly to the new scene, and particularly those withlow levels of education, run the risk of economic exclusion.

Higher order skillsThe need for skilled workers to operate in this new environmentinvolves a whole set of new working competences. Skills which enableworkers to adapt to higher levels of expectation and uncertainty aremuch debated and have been described in a variety of ways; ‘soft’ skills,emotional intelligence, higher order skills and learning to learn are justa few of the current labels. They are essentially based around two keyabilities – the ability to work well with other people, and the ability to

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adapt to, create and manage change – and are based on an implicit, flex-ible understanding of how to deal with particular situations or chal-lenges. Although the demand for specialist technical or factual knowl-edge is still growing, these kinds of ability often relate to an aptitudeto shape and manage more specific skills and tools to achieve neworganisational objectives. Because of this they are often implicit and arerarely codified or formally accredited. Throughout the rest of this reportwe refer to them as ‘higher order’, because they often rest on morespecific knowledge or skills, and workers are able to use them moreeffectively in unpredictable organisational settings.

Higher order skills manifest themselves in behaviours which improvethrough practice. Such behaviours incorporate many different compe-tencies, for example communication, interpersonal skills, intercul-tural communication, leadership, team working, intuition, innovation,creativity, problem solving, self-assurance and adaptability.

These skills are sought after in all sectors, both public and private.Healthwork UK notes that: ‘Health care delivery is increasingly throughnon-hierarchical team working, which requires a different set of skillsand attitudes than have traditionally been deployed.’14

The government has shown concern that these higher order skills arenot adequately represented in the labour market. The UK Skills TaskForce found that the greatest gaps between employers’ demands andavailable supply were in the areas of communication, team working,problem solving and information technology. They also identified agrowth in demand for management skills driven by the restructuringof organisations, decentralised decision making and the increase inhigher level positions.15

Employers too are concerned about low levels of higher order skillsin the workforce. The CBI’s employment trends survey of 2001 showedthat companies saw ‘high levels of workforce and management skills’as the key drivers of present and future competitiveness and thatskills shortages and gaps are reported to have risen significantly overthe past year.16 Thirty-nine per cent of employers said that this has hada significant impact on business performance. Another survey by MORIin 2000 among Britain’s captains of industry showed that, for the firsttime ever, the issue of skills shortage is of more concern than regula-tion and competition, with one in three – three times as many as in

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1999 – mentioning it as their major preoccupation.17 A recent study esti-mated that the UK needed to recruit and develop around 400,000 newmanagers every year in order to meet organisational demand, and thatleadership ability is needed in a growing number of jobs beyondmanagement.18

In response to this, and also as part of a commitment to reduce socialexclusion, the government has sought to create a culture of reskillingand openness to learning in the adult population. The Learning andSkills Council, which is responsible for all education in England afterthe age of sixteen – other than the university sector – has a budget of£5.5 billion. A range of policies has been introduced to encourage andsubsidise individual lifelong learning. The government has set up a UK-wide network of Sector Skills Councils with an aim to reducing skillsgaps and shortages via employer-led action plans.19

Employers are also seeking to enhance the skills of the workforce.Ninety per cent of workplaces in Britain offer some form of training toemployees; around half of all employees have received training in theprevious twelve months and 16 per cent have received training in thelast four weeks.20 Britain compares well in this area with other Europeancountries: figures show that the UK spends 2.7 per cent of total labourcosts on vocational training compared with a European average of 1.6per cent.21

However, despite this acute concern about the workforce and skills,employer commitment to learning is inconsistent. The Labour ForceSurvey found that, although it appears to have increased over the lastfifteen years, the level of training has remained fairly static over the lastfive years.22 There is also significant inequality in the receipt of train-ing. Around one third of employees report that they have not beenoffered any kind of training by their current employer during the lastyear. Training targeted specifically at developing higher order skills ispoorly defined and measured.

One indicator of failing employer strategies to learning is employeescepticism. A 1999 survey by the Roffey Park Management Institute indi-cated that employees were sceptical about company statements whichrefer to employees as ‘the firm’s most valuable asset’. Seventy-six percent of employees surveyed indicated that their firm’s actual organi-sational practices bore no resemblance to espoused value statements.23

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The emerging conclusions of the workforce development project under-taken by the government’s Performance and Innovation Unit are veryclear: ‘The current system is failing many millions of employees andpreventing the UK economy from realising its full potential.’24

Investment in knowledge and learning is seen as difficult by employ-ers for a number of reasons. Higher order skills do not yet follow estab-lished patterns of acquisition and evaluation. Although research doesexist on the ways in which people develop such abilities as interpersonalintelligence, there are few robust methods for teaching or accreditingthis development.

Another barrier to investing in skills is the uncertainty as to whetherthe long-term benefit of the investment will go to the employer whoundertakes staff training or to a competitor. Many employers implementcontracts which stipulate that individuals must pay back the costs ofa training course if they leave within a certain period after its comple-tion. Hard evidence relating to the poaching of trained staff is unclear,but it may be that the fear of poaching may be as important as theoccurrence itself in presenting an obstacle to employers’ investing instaff.25

Other barriers for employers to investment in learning include thegeneral atmosphere of change and uncertainty. Organisations arefacing a near constant process of restructuring and change. There is ahigh degree of churn in all sectors; one third of graduates do not antici-pate staying with their employer for more than a year or two.26 Pressuresof productivity and efficiency mean that many workers are understeadily increasing pressure. Working hours are going up. Full-timeemployees in the UK work on average longer hours per week than anyof their counterparts in Europe.27 The transfer of risk via outsourcingto casual workers is a common option for pressured employers. Thesefactors will be exacerbated in an economic downturn, though labourmarkets will become less tight for employers.

Investment in skills and learning is certainly difficult for employers,but a lack of innovation and commitment to higher order skills willonly worsen the workforce crisis. The research highlighted three keyworkforce opportunities that the majority of employers are notcurrently taking advantage of. These opportunities are broader thaninternational volunteering, though are related to it.



Three key opportunities for employers

1. Career path innovation New career paths which incorporate a variety of roles and experiencesover a period of time are popular with employees but are not yet beingembraced by employers. Career path innovation could acknowledge andrespond to this demand from individuals in the form of a number ofchanges, such as flexible contracts, which give options for variousdegrees of commitment, secondment opportunities and cross-team ordepartmental roles. This would give rise to new benefits of networkcreation and to the transfer of knowledge and ideas; it would also re-engage employees with an organisation, rather than alienating theminto free working or a series of disconnected commitments. This oppor-tunity is especially pertinent for the public sector, which is currentlylosing people who feel unable to conform to past expectations of staticjob roles and career definitions.

2. Championing diversitySome observers have noted that, historically, the cultures and civilisa-tions that had most vitality were also those that were most open.28

Organisations have come to embrace this view, and incorporatingdiversity into the workforce is now an expected ambition. However,achieving this diversity is not so easy, and many organisations, from thevoluntary to the business sector, fail to meet their diversity objectives.An NCBV survey earlier this year conducted among 210 charities foundthat, although 88 per cent of them had adopted an equal opportuni-ties policy, fewer than 2 per cent of volunteers were black.29 The reasonsfor this failure in achieving diversity are complex, but evidence suggestsa dearth of positive role models and external impressions of culturallyclosed cultures in some sectors. The task of creating open cultures viasuch initiatives as global education and exchanges may be a good start-ing point for organisations wanting to achieve their diversity objectives.Returned volunteers may not be from ethnic minorities themselves, butthey do exhibit sensitivity to cultural differences and therefore can actas a powerful catalyst to achieving a global standard workforce.

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3. Nurturing new leaders The increase in managerial roles and new working challenges andchanges has raised the premium on good leaders, but evidence pointsto a lack of effective leadership in the UK. A recent survey by Demos andthe Institute of Managers revealed that one third of all managers andhalf of all junior managers rated the quality of leadership in their organ-isations as poor.30 New leadership patterns rely on behaviours such aspersuasion, devolution of decisions and the communication of organ-isational objectives. Poor feedback from employees indicates that organ-isations do not currently have an adequate strategy to ensure theirmanagers exhibit these behaviours. There is an opportunity for organ-isations to learn from the international volunteering model of collab-oration, sustainable change and the empowerment of others to nurturebetter leaders in the workforce.

Summary The overall picture is one of extreme change and a need for adaptiveand innovative people and organisations. Despite this imperative need,employer training strategies and career management systems haveremained largely unchanged for decades. International volunteering isnot currently part of the debate concerning higher order skills andworkforce development, but the research revealed the strong linksbetween the two. This research set out to look at the current positionof international volunteering with employers and the labour market.

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2. International volunteering: definition, context, and attitudes

Volunteering?Volunteering as a term encompasses a multitude of associations.Volunteers by definition act out of their own free will, whether theybe schoolboys who have volunteered to read in class, retired ladiesgiving their time to serve at charity shops, or ambitious young internsworking at prestigious organisations without pay. All volunteers havea greater goal in mind, be it a morally driven objective, a sense ofpersonal achievement or a strategic career plan. Volunteering in aninternational context incorporates some of these themes, but it is alsoquite different.

International volunteers are individuals who travel to other coun-tries, usually developing countries, to work on projects designed to helpalleviate poverty and achieve positive sustainable development. Theseindividuals are most often qualified professionals, such as teachers, ITspecialists, engineers, health workers, agriculturalists and businessadvisers, who are able to offer badly needed skills to areas in the devel-oping world suffering or recovering from the negative effects of conflict,disease, poverty or environmental degradation. International volunteersforgo the normal wage they would earn in the developed world, butthey are usually paid small allowances. A typical volunteering assign-ment is a long-term commitment of one or two years, though assign-ment length can vary widely by project and role. International volun-teering is strongly linked to a wider picture of development work, and


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volunteer sending agencies operate closely with international partnerssuch as governments, development agencies and NGOs.

Because of its long-term, professional and developmental nature, theconcept of international volunteering is far broader than volunteeringin the UK. The domestic volunteer will fit voluntary work – such astutoring disadvantaged children or chairing a round table group –around other real-life commitments. International volunteers, on theother hand, make a total commitment to another culture for a specificterm, so that their contribution is not a solitary act or a voluntary dona-tion of time, but rather a distinct period in that individual’s life. Forthis reason, some volunteer sending agencies have dropped the term‘volunteer’ because they feel it has unprofessional connotations.However, volunteering is still the preferred term for most organisationsin the sector on account of the donation of time and goodwill that aninternational assignment represents.

The changing face of developmentTo understand the current role of international volunteering, it is neces-sary to look at the wider concept of development; more than ever, it islinked to politicised issues such as trade, debt, corporate exploitation,anti-globalisation and political debate within the developing worlditself. Bodies such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and Peace Corps are nowmultinational organisations with considerable influence over govern-ment and sophisticated forms of advocacy and lobbying.

The developing world itself is not static. Developing countries haveuniversities and qualified professionals of their own. Demand fordevelopmental aid and volunteers is high, but requests are now forhighly skilled professionals with specific knowledge to share.

The intellectual basis of development too has changed. It has evolvedaway from the idea of a linear project towards modernisation and hasbeen superseded by the view of a networked and collaborative approachto reducing poverty and achieving sustainability. As Allan Kaplan says,in Understanding development as a living process: ‘An effective developmentpractice accompanies clients through their developmental changes; one-off interventions and predesigned packages are beside the point.’31

Changing views about development come hand in hand withchanging views about international volunteering. The perspective of

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International volunteering: definition, context, and attitudes

international volunteering as a process of ongoing collaborativepartnerships and not simply to do with the localised efforts of indi-viduals is part of this broader global shift towards greater intercon-nectedness.

Risks and opportunities of globalisation Globalisation is bringing opportunities for more equal relationshipsbetween countries through interconnected partnerships. For example,VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) now undertakes South-South volun-teering, assigning individuals from certain developing countries tovolunteer placements. Recent years have seen volunteer advertising shiftaway from an emphasis on altruistic giving and towards new forms ofreciprocal exchange and global community building. New technologyopens opportunities for participation to whole populations, who do notactually need to travel to engage with people in other countries. Oneexample of this is the Swinfen Charitable Trust, which facilitates thegiving of free advice on patients by consultants to doctors in the devel-oping world via emails containing attachments of X-rays and medicalnotes. 32

The opportunity to build a sense of global community is one of themost positive aspects of globalisation and one that has most relevancein the current climate of ideological conflict. The idea of positiveinterdependence has a great deal of received high-level support and wasa key message of Tony Blair’s speech of 2 October 2001 to the LabourParty Conference.33 This may signal a new era for international volun-teering, defined by the purposeful sharing of mindsets as well as themore tangible exchange of knowledge and skills.

Globalisation brings opportunities, but it also brings risks. Intensecompetition and a more technological and knowledge-dependenteconomy will only favour economies able to keep up with new demands.Countries without access to the technology, training and know-howupon which the new economy depends will be excluded from vital tradeand resources. In this context, the exchange of knowledge and skillsbetween individuals and communities upon which international volun-teering is based is ever more important for the combating of povertyand exclusion.

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Past and presentInternational volunteering has changed a great deal over time. In theUK the phenomenon derived from the end of National Service in the1950s. Early volunteers were mainly young school leavers or graduatesfulfilling education or administrative posts overseas. Skills levels wererelatively low and assignment goals quite simple. Volunteers filledempty capacity, delivered aid or ‘taught’ skills to local people. The coreaim of volunteering as an act of humanitarian goodwill has remained,but the exact nature of volunteering has been transformed quitedramatically from those early days.

The changing nature of development has demanded more profes-sional skills from volunteers while continuing to place them in diffi-cult and unpredictable environments. This has led more volunteers tosee volunteering as a personal and professional enhancement oppor-tunity where their learning will be accelerated by the challenging condi-tions. In fact, the research identified an emergent sector of ‘careervolunteers’ who are individuals using international volunteering toprecisely this end. From their perspective, volunteering gives valuableinternational experience and magnifies the higher order skills that thenew economy demands, while also fulfilling a wider definition ofprofessional satisfaction and fitting well into a self-managed career.

A combination of this demand from ‘career volunteers’ and thechanging needs of developing countries has given rise to a whole newgeneration of organisations and projects designed to fulfil specific skillsgaps in the developing world. UNISTAR (United Nations InternationalShort-Term Advisory Resources), MANGO (Management Accounting forNon-Governmental Organisations), VSO Business Partnerships andBESO (British Executive Service Overseas) all occupy this niche.

International volunteering is now well established all over the world,and evidence points to an increase in popularity. For example, VSOreceived 6,630 applications in 1999-2000, a leap of 59 per cent from twoyears ago. In 1999-2000 the number of volunteers sent overseas rose by 17per cent compared with 1997-98.34 Correspondingly, there has been a risein the number of volunteer sending agencies in the UK, now numberingnearly 100, with a wide variety of interests ranging from those with ageneralist inolvement to profession-, country- or activity-specific agencies.35



Of these, Peace Corps, VSO and United Nations Volunteers are the bestknown.

Returning volunteers also play an important role in the overallpicture. For example, 30,000 VSO volunteers have returned to the UKsince their programmes began over 40 years ago.36 Along with volunteersfrom other agencies, this is a substantial community which can havea significant impact on the social and economic life of the UK. Theseindividuals possess a massive ability to shape attitudes, change mind-sets, and give global perspectives to domestic situations. They are alsoliving examples of shared global experience, which adds some warmthto the usually cold concept of globalisation.

Different sectoral approaches to international volunteeringInternational volunteering has a very good reputation and enjoysgoodwill among the general public; to volunteer overseas is generallyconsidered a charitable act and ‘a good thing to do’. However, specificknowledge about developing countries and international volunteeringprogrammes is often vague and sometimes wrapped up in imagery ofa colonial past.

The jumble of different types of overseas experiences is not helpingto improve understanding of international volunteering. Travel, inter-national assignments and volunteering tend to be categorised under thesame umbrella of ‘time out’, though in reality different types of expo-sure work towards very different goals. The rise of gap-year andextended travel is colouring perceptions of international experiencesand contributing to an impression of overseas involvement as some-thing that is a respectable rite of passage but not really relevant ineconomic or professional terms.37 The professional nature of interna-tional volunteering, which is arguably part of a career progression plan,is very often lost among these other impressions.

Such attitudes prevail not only among the public, but also in indus-try and government, where knowledge about global, development andinternational volunteering issues is not particularly prioritised.

Government UK-based volunteering programmes are better understood and priori-tised more highly by government than international volunteering

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schemes. Domestic volunteering is liked because it is seen as a welcomebuilding block of UK citizenship and civil society. The government hasinvested highly in domestic volunteering initiatives such as MillenniumVolunteers, the UN’s International Year of Volunteers (which focuses onnational programmes in the UK) and the Active Community Unit.Recent studies have indicated that this investment is a good one, as theeconomic benefit of domestic volunteering is significant. The Instituteof Volunteering Research states that, in the UK, £400 million is investedin 22 million adults involved in formal volunteering each year; for thisinvestment, government gets a notional economic return on volunteeroutput of £12 billion, an investment ratio of 1:30.38

This focus on domestic volunteering has not been matched by anyparticularly vocal or visible support from government for interna-tional volunteering programmes. In fact, in some countries fundingsupport for international volunteering is waning. Ireland and theNetherlands have both cut budgets for international volunteeringschemes dramatically.39 In the UK, funding to international volunteer-ing seems secure, but the economic significance to the UK of interna-tional volunteering is not well researched, and perceptions about it arefirmly anchored on altruistic giving to the global poor rather than thereturn benefits to the UK.

EmployersMost employers are involved in volunteering mainly in a UK context.Many companies, including Barclays, Happy Computers, J Sainsburyand Jaguar, have risen to the government’s challenge of giving employ-ees a working day every year to volunteer in the community.40 Incomparison, employers are seemingly indifferent to internationalvolunteering, and there are few formal partnerships or schemesbetween employers and volunteer sending agencies. However, growinginterest in global concerns may signify an upturn in interest in theopportunities presented by international volunteering. The triplematch among global brands, concepts of global community and inter-national volunteering has been spotted by Benetton, who have recentlysponsored a major advertising campaign for United Nations Volunteers.Other organisations are beginning to recognise the benefits that‘career volunteers’ bring in terms of new perspectives and knowledge,

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and partnerships between organisations and volunteer sending agen-cies are increasing.41

SummaryIt is clear that current trends such as globalisation, widening inequal-ity and new concepts of development have the potential to reinforce andincrease the relevance and value of international volunteering.International volunteering is also growing in relevance to individuals,who increasingly want to incorporate international experience andexperiential learning into flexible career patterns. However, a mix offactors, such as the lack of hard evidence about its economic and profes-sional impacts in the UK and vague perceptions around internationalvolunteering activities, may all be contributing to a lack of convincingprovision or policies to cater for international volunteers from bothgovernment and employers.

This research set out to evaluate systematically both the skills benefitwhich international volunteering has to individuals and the reputationit has among employers to gain a better understanding of the linkagesbetween international volunteering and the UK labour market.

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3. The employer viewpoint

The employer viewpoint was complex. In principle, all the employerswe interviewed endorsed international volunteering. However, theresearch revealed a major gap between this theoretical endorsementand the actual treatment of management of volunteers in the UK, aswell as large differences in employer and volunteer perceptions of whatvolunteering could offer. Overall, the majority of employers were reluc-tant, for a number of attitudinal and practical reasons, to embrace inter-national volunteering as an integrated part of their business.

Beyond this, there were clear differences in opinion between seniorand middle managers and between public and private sectors. There wasa small group of ‘volunteer advocates’ in the employer population whowere effectively using the volunteer experience to their advantage.These advocates were either small organisations or teams where partic-ular individuals had pioneered volunteer-friendly environments, orlarge progressive multinationals who had their own strategic reasonsfor incorporating volunteering into their business.

Attitudinal barriersThe attitudinal barriers for employers centred around a belief that inter-national volunteering was a personal matter. Employers tended tobelieve that volunteers were motivated by altruistic reasons. Althoughthis was partially true for some volunteers, employers did not take intoaccount the many other varied and work-focused motives individualsmight have. Therefore employers disconnected themselves from the‘private’ matter of volunteering.

There was also a lack of understanding about what internationalvolunteering involves and how it incorporates professional skills.


The employer viewpoint

Perceptions were characterised by a variety of incorrect images, suchas gap-year travel, religious missions or protest activism. An extremeview was that international volunteering was a manifestation of analternative world view diametrically opposed to the expectations ofconformity and professionalism embodied in ordinary work. Suchopinions were present in the employer sample, but the counter-presenceof employers who were volunteer advocates may indicate a downturnin these old-style ways of thinking. Increased incidence of career volun-teering where international experience is linked to economic success,and a general blurring of sectors accompanied by increased corporateinterest in voluntary sector issues, supports this view.

International volunteering was consistently described by the major-ity of employers as a career break, time out, or a chance to rechargebatteries. Employers certainly believed that the volunteering experi-ence is challenging, but they tended to think about it in terms oflifestyle rather than as a professional challenge. Unless the returnedvolunteer had been particularly successful at communicating theexact role they had fulfilled and the professional skills they hadgained, employers did not think about volunteering in terms of workat all: ‘It doesn’t jump out at me how it’s relevant. I’m sure it was hardand an amazing experience, but I don’t see how it is relevant now’(small business chief executive).

Some employers worried that a history of international experiencessignalled a lack of reliability. The strong association between volun-teering overseas and the more general phenomenon of travel andadventure seeking played a part in this perception: ‘In an interview Iwould ask people about whether they wanted to go abroad again. Youcan’t expect to keep people for a long time, but if they had a history oftravelling, or they hadn’t stayed in jobs for more than a year at a time,that may well raise a question mark’ (public sector human resources direc-tor).

When worries about reliability were combined with the generalbelief that volunteering is a private matter, employers became evenmore determined not to ‘pry’ into motivations to volunteer. This couldbe interpreted by volunteers as a total lack of interest in the subject andcould lead them to want to work for an employer who placed morevalue on varied and challenging experiences. There is clearly an argu-

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ment here for much better communications between employers andstaff to avoid such misunderstandings.

Evidence about negative employer attitudes towards internationalvolunteering should not suggest that employers are not interested innew forms of experiential learning and evaluation; there is lots ofevidence to suggest that they are. Traditional classroom-basedapproaches to employee training have given way to more popularforms of team-based and interactive learning. Interviews are oftenconstructed around group discussions and tasks rather than moreformal question-and-answer sessions and tests. 360° feedback is anaccepted form of manager evaluation.

Also, employers are interested in international experience. Employersroutinely use departmental interchange or international secondmentas a means to develop staff – graduates in particular. Governmentdepartments see interchange programmes as a key way to drive forwardthe modernising agenda via learning from other sectors. The CivilService and the Ministry of Defence both have well-established inter-change opportunities for people coming in and people going out.Accountancy firms have a steady flow of staff on secondment at differ-ent offices or partner businesses around the world, and, as one humanresources director put it: ‘An international stint is an absolute prereq-uisite for candidates interested in pursuing a high-level career. It is allpart of rounding off both experience and character.’42

The professional value of these practices is widely understood, anda lot of investment is channelled into their development. However,because of the attitudinal issues surrounding it, international volun-teering does not currently slot easily into these initiatives and is notmanaged or evaluated in the same way.

Practical barriersThe practical barriers to embracing international volunteering werecentred upon the inconveniences in time and cost of absent staff, thelack of adequate leave of absence policies, the difficulty of evaluatingthe skill benefits, and problems with out-of-date skills.

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The hassle factorA key impression employers associated with international volunteeringwas one of inconvenience. Even employers who were positive aboutinternational volunteering found replacing or covering for absent staffa problem, at least in the short term. This was particularly true foremployers in small organisations, who were already experiencing a lotof instability because of a high degree of churn in the labour market:‘I must admit, there is a moment where you think “Oh no, I hope mybest members of staff are not thinking of doing that!”’ (NHS manager).

Employers worried most about workload issues, but the loss ofspecific expertise was also a factor, especially if the volunteer was a long-standing member of staff who had become a custodian of knowledgein their particular organisation. Such worries were especiallypronounced for middle managers, who were most concerned with theimmediate short-term issues, and the public sector, who were workingwithin large, hierarchical organisations where flexibility in staff rolesand responsibilities and rapid adaptation was most difficult to achieve.

Senior managers were more positive about the ease of accommo-dating absent volunteers via a range of innovative measures, such asinterchanges with other departments, twinning programmes withpartners, and even negotiating contracts with volunteers to providesupport to their teams back in the UK via the telephone or the inter-net. However, the absence of these kinds of initiatives at a practical levelindicates that senior managers were doing little to help provide orcommunicate solutions to lower management.

Bad communications between employers and employees on thisissue worsened the hassle factor. The majority of volunteers inter-viewed in the research admitted that they had not felt able to discussthe possible career benefits and therefore did not inform their employ-ers of their intentions until the last minute. This increased inconve-niences such as workload transfer and unexpected disruptions toteams and projects.

This feeling of inconvenience, which most employers expressed,could affect perceptions of international volunteering at a broader level.When applying for jobs, returned volunteers found that prospectiveemployers brushed over any professional skills they might have gainedwhile abroad and were most interested in their volunteering experi-

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ences in terms of being relieved that they had ‘got that out of theirsystem’.

Leave of absenceThe majority of employers tended to see international volunteering asa work-life balance issue, and would therefore categorise policies whichenabled staff to volunteer overseas as belonging to the same policygrouping as part-time work, job sharing, home offices, career breaksand flexible hours. These initiatives were not connected to personaldevelopment or skills, and where they existed were largely a result ofgovernment initiatives or employee demand. They were thought to beof benefit to business only insofar as they kept employees motivated andsatisfied.

However, for the majority of volunteers, career-break policies, whichwere invariably designed for parenting, were not user friendly forvolunteering purposes. Some of these policies actually excluded over-seas experience via specific clauses stipulating that staff commit at leasttwo weeks per year of their absence working at their place of employ-ment. Career-break policies were also based on an assumption thatabsent staff had not been working during the period of leave. Thereforelower levels and out of practice skills were expected, and returned staffwere given little responsibility and sometimes even demoted.Management debriefs on changed skills or new professional goals werenot offered. As a result the majority of volunteers found career-breakpolicies did not really fit their needs and felt it was simpler to resignand then reapply for the same or another job at a later date: ‘I kept thetransaction simple and left the job, though they did offer me a job assoon as I came back’ (returned volunteer).

In the research interviews, employers who had no career-break poli-cies, or policies that were inadequate for international volunteeringpurposes, tended to emphasise the importance of talking through thebusiness benefits with immediate managers and negotiating an appro-priate way forward. In this way, they said, individualised agreementscould be made to align the benefits to both the organisation and thevolunteer: ‘Having this kind of break, it is unlikely to become an auto-matic right. It will be a matter for that immediate manager to talk itthrough. It may well be seen as a personal development benefit. The

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individual will be asked what benefits they see. If they give a carefullyreasoned point, we would be interested’ (human resources director of amajor company).

However, this does not take into account the not very positive, andoccasionally hostile, attitudes many middle managers had towards staffrequesting these kinds of opportunities. In reality successful negotia-tion of an agreement involved more than just a single manager. Onlythe most confident and persuasive of volunteers were able to designtheir own volunteering opportunities by negotiating with the relevantpeople and departments within their organisations. One individual hadmanaged to implement a whole partnership initiative to enable himand others to take part in volunteering opportunities within thecontext of the organisation: ‘I really emphasised the business case andgot HR involved.’

When such partnerships and policies were actualised, employers weredelighted with the retention and personal development benefits theypresented for individuals who might otherwise have left the organisa-tion. However, only a minority of organisations had progressed this farin incorporating international volunteering in their workforce devel-opment strategies.

Work-based systems of evaluation In the research interviews employers did report new skills and organ-isational benefits, and these were broadly consistent with the perceivedskills gains from the volunteer perspective. (These are explored inmore detail below in the volunteer experience.) However, due to the lackof structured evaluation of volunteers’ skills gains and attitudes aboutthe non-professional value of volunteering, employer analysis of theskills gains of returned volunteers was limited.

Some individual volunteers, often in conjunction with their volun-teer sending agency or careers advisers, had themselves evaluated thespecific skills and benefits they had gained through their internationalexperience. This took the form of rating skills on questionnaires,giving examples of skills on CVs or holding more informal conversationswith advisers, and was not always transferred into the workplace. Ingeneral the research indicated fairly poor incorporation of skills gained

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through international volunteering into the work-based evaluationsystem.

The reasons for this lack of evaluation were threefold. First, becauseof a more general fear about ‘volunteering’ not being taken seriously,returned volunteers were not very proactive about describing newskills to employers. Second, because they believed it was a privatematter, employers did not take account of international volunteeringduring evaluations. Finally, work-based systems of evaluation, such asapplication forms, interviews, job descriptions and appraisals, as theyare currently designed, measure a very narrow aspect of an individual’sperformance, and examples of total skills audits based on a broaderview of an individual’s life were relatively rare.

Of these systems of evaluation, application forms seemed to giveinternational volunteers the most opportunity to state the case for newskills gained. Requests to include volunteering experiences did appearon many standard application forms, and volunteers were using exam-ples from their assignments to answer specific questions, particularlyregarding soft skills (eg, examples of team work or overcoming aproblem). However, other work-based systems of evaluation did notreally accommodate international volunteering experiences.

In job interviews, volunteers found questions about internationalvolunteering experiences focused on the lifestyle rather than theprofessional challenge. For example, questions tended to be aboutwhether or not they had suffered illness, and how they managedwithout home comforts. In an effort to avoid this, some volunteers hadomitted the word ‘volunteer’ from their CVs in order to accentuate theprofessional nature of their overseas work.

In the workplace itself a common managerial strategy to deal withinternational volunteers was a totally hands-off approach, leaving staffto ease back into the real world of work after an extended ‘holiday’. Thismeant that analyses of job descriptions or appraisals were invariablybased around UK experiences. When employers did envisage work-related or skills benefits – which many did – they relied very much onthe volunteer to actualise them.

Volunteers consistently wanted their employers to take moreadvantage of the benefits by more formal monitoring of new skillsand networking with other countries: ‘I didn’t talk much about the

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business benefit with them. It was more about just letting someonewith a strong will just doing what they wanted to do. It could bemuch more incorporated into the business. It should be included inpersonnel file, you could have a debrief when you come back, morelinks could be made to the local office in the location’ (returned volun-teer working for a large multinational corporation).

Out-of-date hard skills, networks and knowledgeOut-of-date skills, networks and knowledge were cited as problems byboth returning volunteers and their employers. Returning volunteerscommented on the rapid pace of change, which could be quite bewil-dering: the proliferation of mobile phones, new words and phrases, andunfamiliar brands and services were all mentioned. However, accli-matisation to the UK was a short-term issue that was remedied fairlyquickly. Problems of a more long-term nature were specific retrainingof specific skills or subjects and out-of-date networks.

Retraining or refresher courses for returned volunteers were notproactively offered by employers. Most volunteers managed to get upto date over time, but a bigger problem could be caused where returnedvolunteers were expected to undertake specific tasks for which they hadnot received adequate training or information. For example, oneteacher had been given responsibility for a particular curriculumstream with which she was unfamiliar. These kinds of experiences couldbe particularly problematic when individuals were already disillu-sioned about employer attitudes towards international volunteering.

Out-of-date UK networks and contacts were also a problem in aworking environment increasingly reliant on a networked approach.The loss of working relationships with suppliers, partners, the media,and other departments could leave returned volunteers disconnectedfrom their colleagues and organisations. Certainly a lot more could bedone in this area to ensure a better maintenance of relationshipswithin the UK, perhaps in the form of reports and updates with desig-nated UK support networks. Equally, more imaginative or even thecommercial use of newly formed networks abroad is an opportunity fororganisations.

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Volunteering advocatesIn some cases where they had had very good experiences with returnedvolunteers, employers became volunteer advocates. These employersregarded international volunteering experiences as fertile ground forthe accelerated acquisition of valuable higher order skills, such ascommunication, networking, collaboration and adaptation, in an expe-riential environment. Volunteer advocates tended to be either largemultinational organisations who, because of the high-level, client-facing and globally sensitive nature of their work, were especiallyaware of the need for higher order skills in their workforces or smallerorganisations or teams who, following positive experiences, had devel-oped traditions of recruiting or encouraging international volunteers.

The larger multinationals had a sophisticated understanding of newcareer patterns which involve periods of learning and inspiration gath-ering interspersed with periods of commitment to an employer.Motivating, satisfying and retaining staff while developing a reputationfor being an innovative employer in the wider job market was very perti-nent for them, as they were acutely aware of the war for graduates andtalent. They saw partnerships with volunteering programmes as a wayto motivate, develop and retain employees at the same time as enhanc-ing brand reputation. One employer described the motives behind anofficial partnership with a volunteer sending agency as follows:‘Retention is paramount for us. There is always such a shortage of goodpeople. We want to show people how best to pursue their interests whilestill at our company. Volunteering programmes seemed a really intrigu-ing way to achieve that objective.’ (human resources specialist in a largemultinational company)

Those individuals who had been able to participate in partnershipprogrammes did indeed feel positively about their employers as aresult. They believed that their employer’s involvement signified aninnovative and progressive outlook to staff and organisational devel-opment. Volunteers were also left with a powerful sense of the poten-tially very positive role their organisations played in international devel-opment: ‘I feel positively about them. They have enormous potential tomake a difference. They work in over 100 countries worldwide. They areseeing the links between economic and social factors much more now

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and are incorporating them’ (returned volunteer who took part in a volun-teer-business partnership programme).

The smaller organisations or teams within organisations who wereengaged in international volunteering programmes were typicallypersonality led. Occasionally such personalities were themselvesreturned volunteers or would-be volunteers who had been unable to gooverseas for practical reasons. These small groups were often using inter-national volunteering to achieve objectives of innovation or change. Oneteam of doctors were using learning from other countries to help themunderstand alternative ways of diagnosing and treating mental healthproblems. A head teacher was achieving greater cultural understand-ing of children from ethnic minorities in the school by recruitingreturned volunteers and encouraging teachers to take up volunteeringopportunities in the relevant countries. The staff in this school werekeen to add to what they saw as the organisational pool of culturalknowledge and skills. In these cases word-of-mouth recommendationsand visible benefits in the form of the good performance of returnedvolunteers had overcome employer barriers.

Sector-specific findings

Senior staffSenior staff, such as human resources directors, policy makers and chiefexecutives, were the most positive about international volunteering andhad the most progressive attitudes towards it. They were conscious ofbrand issues, such as becoming ‘an employer of choice’ or developinga reputation for enabling people to have a fuller experience of life, andsaw the potential retention, motivational and skills benefits. Thisgroup did acknowledge some practical risks but balanced these againsta wider view of benefits. They did, however, acknowledge that,currently, practical provision for international volunteering in termsof systems of evaluation, retraining and appropriate leaves of absencewere quite low. They also commented, quite accurately, that individualmanagers, who were largely left to deal with these issues, were notnecessarily very accommodating of international volunteers’ needs: ‘Agood manager will congratulate and support people who want to gooverseas on these kinds of programmes. They will recognise that good

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people will come in the wake of that person. They will develop a repu-tation for being a progressive manager with a good team. They will givean open-ended contract to that person and recognise the benefits. Wehope our managers do that, though I could not say if all of them do’(NHS human resources policy maker).

Middle managers Middle managers were more negative about international volunteering.They were preoccupied with the short-term hassle of managing person-nel change and transfer of workload and were also concerned about thepractical difficulties of out-of-date experience. Others worried that anindividual’s desire to work abroad signified a failure on their part toretain staff. There was some suspicion from middle managers whenrecruiting staff of experiences which were different from the norm.Smaller organisations or teams often operated on a ‘clone’-style recruit-ment strategy where immediate managers were doubtful of unfamil-iar experiences. This applied to charity sector employers as well, and isperhaps one of the reasons why so many returned volunteers end upworking for charity sector organisations where volunteering experienceis normal and readily accepted.

Public sectorEmployers in the public sector were most likely to endorse volunteer-ing at an ethical level, but equally had most problems supporting itpractically. Public sector employers were often interested in develop-ment issues and were sympathetic to the role of international volun-teering. They were keen to embrace a more diverse and culturally awareworkforce and to gain ideas from comparable public services overseas.However, returned volunteer experiences of public sector employerswere the worst in terms of being practically accommodated. Publicsector workers reported a number of ways in which they felt disad-vantaged, such as being demoted, being overlooked for promotionopportunities, and not being retrained.

The difficulties contributing to this paradoxical approach appear tobe multifold. Problems such as overworked line managers focused onshort-term workload and retention issues, and a lack of direction fromabove about how to manage the volunteering process, were worsened

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by the major recruitment and retention crisis which is currently occur-ring across the public sector. Additionally, public sector structurestended to be large and bureaucratic, with deeply ingrained career pathsand little opportunity for flexible working or learning.

Despite these barriers, trends in the public sector such as modern-isation and internationalisation may well encourage more openness tointernational and alternative career experiences. International issuesare becoming more relevant for the public sector, particularly as someorganisations are recruiting internationally as a response to shortagesin the UK. Public sector employers are also keen to incorporate diver-sity into their workforces. One NHS trust employer spoke of a success-ful exchange system which had been set up with a health organisationin Spain: ‘I hope it will grow in future. It helps trusts to work in collab-oration: over time we can learn from each other’s health care systems’(NHS manager).

Recruitment from overseas can be a very positive experience if thereis a plentiful supply of public sector workers in the donor country, butit can be very detrimental where it deprives developing countries ofteachers and health workers when they already have a shortfall.Development agencies have recently called upon the public sector formuch better management of this kind of recruitment.

The modernisation drive is placing a premium on public sector staffwho can move knowledge and information, lead effectively and bringa culturally sensitive perspective. This is very pertinent to internationalvolunteering, as it is an excellent training ground for gaining thesekinds of higher order skills: ‘The public sector is undergoing massiveorganisational change. There are now different expectations of publicservices. We need to encourage people to behave differently by takingresponsibility and sharing. We are losing people to elsewhere but thework is more interesting here. There is also a push to place managerswho have skills which match management requirements, not justpeople who have become managers by default’ (local authority humanresources director).

However, it will be difficult for the public sector seriously to embraceinternational volunteering until is has delivered practical solutions toaccommodate the volunteering process, enabled volunteers to transfer

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new skills effectively and implemented a consistent approach to inter-national recruitment and exchanges.

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TTeeaacchhiinngg

International volunteering has its roots in education, and a large proportion of volunteers come from the

teaching profession.Teachers often found their volunteering experience incredibly empowering, particularly

where they had the opportunity to experience new roles, such as working in curriculum units and teacher

training posts: ‘It exploded my ideas of what teaching was. I have a more holistic view of teaching. It is more

about building relationships and less to do with subject matter’ (returned volunteer teacher).

From the employer perspective, the research highlighted very polarised views.The new autonomy for head

teachers created by the devolution of power meant that views within schools relied very much upon the val-

ues of the head teacher. Consequently levels of enthusiasm ranged widely. Head teachers who were positive

about international volunteering noticed and encouraged the improved confidence and management skills

developed by returned volunteers.They found that volunteers were often keen to apply for, and likely to get,

promotion and curriculum leadership positions.Teachers in schools with positive head teachers found that

they were able to transfer their new skills very effectively, and much more easily than returned volunteers in

other professions, because of the enthusiasm of teachers and children which kept their experiences alive.

Tower Hamlets has employed several teachers who have volunteered overseas.The head teacher of a

school with predominantly Bangladeshi children described the benefits of a teacher going to Bangladesh as a

volunteer as immense: ‘Parents loved the fact that we had letters and emails which were read out in assem-

bly. It was a good opportunity for that teacher to learn about the Bangladeshi culture and then train other

staff when they came back.We’re still in contact with the country even now that teacher is back.The kind of

people I want in my school are the kind of people who have had, or who want, this kind of experience.’

(headteacher) Tower Hamlets education authority is now engaged in a formal partnership with VSO to

encourage these opportunities.

Not all experiences were so positive. Some teachers claimed that ‘indifferent resistance’ from head teachers

and other staff prevented schools from genuinely incorporating development issues into the curriculum.

Others who had enjoyed teaching overseas resisted going back into teaching because they did not expect

they would be able to use their new skills in the UK in what they had come to believe was an inflexible pro-

fession.They were not given opportunities either to refresh or retrain on the curriculum or to fulfil differ-

ent roles which better reflected their new skills.

There is an opportunity for teaching to be integrated more positively into international volunteering to

reflect the more flexible approach that teachers want. Linking the Post Graduate Certificate of Education

(PGCE) to volunteering opportunities, promoting refresher courses on return to the UK, and discussing

possible new roles with teachers, such as mentoring graduate teachers, running courses on development

and global education, were all mentioned as possible ways to make the volunteering experience of tangible

benefit to the ailing UK education system.



Private sector The private sector displayed the most polarised views towards inter-national volunteering. Opinions broadly corresponded to the size of theorganisation. Larger, multinational corporations were most positiveabout international volunteering and had the most progressive atti-tudes towards it. Smaller companies (SMEs) were much less open, andsome were resistant and wary of it.

Larger corporations were more able to take risks, absorb missingcapacity and predict and react proactively to new trends. Many wereaccustomed to taking on blocks of graduates and moving peoplearound departments quite freely. However, some large private sector‘bastions’ were still unable to engage properly in volunteering, eitherbecause of relentless career ladders (eg, lawyers getting to be partners)or because of short termism (finance).

Smaller companies were concerned more with the short term and lesswith wider global trends, and they found it difficult to accommodatethe personal development of individuals in their business. Managers inSMEs were the most disparaging about the work value of interna-tional volunteering, and joked that volunteers went away on elongatedbreaks or holidays. They did not see why they should subsidise the altru-ism of others, and two years, a standard volunteering placement,seemed to them an extraordinarily long time in business terms. Theytake soft skills less seriously, have the most undeveloped systems of eval-uation and do not see personal development as part of their business.

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4. The volunteer experience

Volunteering experience varied enormously by individual, but therewere some common experiences. All agreed that returning to the UKhad not been easy.

The experience of volunteering changes perspectives about work.Volunteers are often profoundly affected by what they have seen in devel-oping countries and return more ethically charged and with a desire tolead meaningful lives; they also come back with a different attitude tomoney and are less motivated by traditional employers’ tactics of ‘pat andperks’. They choose their workplace more carefully than perhaps theywould have done before, taking into account social and environmentalrecords and working culture. While some may refuse to work for busi-ness altogether, others, often career volunteers, want to go into business,as they see this as the most progressive area in which they can affect themost change. Volunteers express a wish to work for forward-looking andimaginative employers, which they see as defined by flexible workingpractices and a culturally sensitive approach.

Realising the potential of new skills in a UK context was difficult.There were many practical short-term problems through being back inthe UK that led volunteers to find temporary jobs or to re-educate beforethey were able to settle back into work. If volunteers had negative reac-tions from UK employers when re-entering the labour market, it causedthem to have great uncertainty about the future. These volunteers oftenexpressed a desire to go overseas again, to find work in the voluntarysector or to take a job with an international slant.

Once volunteers did get back into work in the UK, they often found thatthey were not on the same pay level or position as previously. Public sectorworkers in particular suffered from very inflexible career definitions,


The volunteer experience

which meant that their absence from the country (though not theirprofessions) defined them as less skilled and therefore liable to be placedon lower grades and lower pay. Several health and social workers whoparticipated in the research had left the profession for precisely thisreason. Despite this discouragement, volunteers wanted to involve theiremployers more: ‘It should be a shared experience. You should have asponsor. You should have someone supporting the transfer of skills backinto the organisation. There should be space for that’ (returned businessadviser).

In summary, the majority of volunteers did not feel they were ableor had the opportunity fully to exploit the benefit of their volunteer-ing experience in the workplace, and ethical endorsements of inter-national volunteering from employers were rarely matched by practi-cal accommodation.

Why do people go?Understanding people’s motives for volunteering are crucial to under-standing how to realise the benefits and transfer new skills back intothe workplace. Employers tended not to enquire after volunteers’motives too closely and therefore found it hard to identify useful skillsand possible future roles. When employers did analyse volunteers’motives, they associated international volunteering with an incentiveto give and not at all with any possible career drivers. This meant thatmany employers were failing to recognise adequately the growingnumber of ‘career volunteers’ who have real potential to transfer valu-able skills and knowledge to the UK.

There are many and varied motives for volunteering, of which altru-ism and career enhancement are just two. Challenge was a key moti-vation for many. One volunteer applicant in his late twenties describeshis personal motivation to volunteer in terms of needing a differentchallenge: ‘I know I have skills I can apply overseas and I want to live adifferent life for a while. It will be good for me to work without all theinfrastructure and support I have around me at the moment. I have toomuch. I want a change to my comfortable existence.’ (business analyst)

The desire to live in another culture was also important. One teacherdescribed how he had looked to volunteering for inspiration and to helphim gain a better understanding of different world views: ‘I needed to

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think outside what was familiar to me for a while. I didn’t feel partic-ularly linked to my country at all, but then I realised I was. It helpedme see how horribly English I was!’ (returned volunteer teacher)

Only a small minority cited altruism as the main driver in their deci-sion to volunteer abroad. Others said that it had been a balanced combi-nation of a desire to give and a desire to gain that had motivated them.

Career motivations were both a barrier and a trigger for potentialinternational volunteers. Some worried about the negative careerimpacts of being away from UK organisations and career structures,while others felt that international volunteering was the best way toaccelerate certain skills. A variety of drivers, such as globalisation andemployer resistance, are keeping both views prevalent in the labourmarket, but the growing number of successful career volunteers mayindicate a positive trend towards volunteering in some segments of theemployer population.

All volunteers talked about a trigger that had finalised their decisionto volunteer abroad. Divorce, milestone birthdays, financial windfalls,children leaving home, or the death of a parent were all examples ofsuch prompts.

These examples illustrate the variety of different motives that exist.The volunteers who fared best back in the UK labour market were thosewho were motivated primarily by their careers. They were often follow-ing very specific strategies and had volunteered at a point in their careerwhere they wanted to inject new skills and ideas. Those who fared lesswell in the UK in work terms were those who had volunteered primar-ily from a desire to give. Typically, if this was the principal reason, volun-teers were less work focused in general; they had not been particularlystrategic about when they had decided to volunteer, nor did they thinkabout specific skills they wanted to gain.

Skills analysis During the research interviews all volunteers were asked to list all the skillsthey had gained, or had been able to improve, as a result of their volun-teering experience. They were also asked to comment on how far they feltthey had improved and how useful they had found their skills in the work-place. Where we were able to speak to returned volunteers’ employers, this

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feedback was cross-referenced with employers’ opinions. The results werethen analysed to create a table of volunteer-generated skills.

Many volunteers had difficulty with the term ‘skill’, as they felt whatthey were describing were more often behaviours, attitudes or mindsets.Overwhelmingly, volunteers said the main benefits that they had gainedas a result of their experience were improved ways of working andenhanced higher order skills. Some mentioned gaining specific techni-cal skills, though these varied enormously by individual and were notranked as highly in terms of level of improvement as higher order skills.

Employers often shared the difficulty with terminology to describebehaviours, and this was frequently matched by an uncertainty abouthow to measure or evaluate higher order skills. However, our evidencesuggests that, while the language to describe higher order skills does varywidely, organisations are beginning to become more systematic in theirapproach. One employer commented: ‘It’s not so difficult to assess softerskills. If you want to see self-awareness, you ask in an interview, “How doyou think others see you?” If you get a blank face, you know they haven’tgot it.’ (charity director) Another said: ‘We now have behavioural compe-tencies which are clustered under leaders, all with indicators. We are nowbasing appraisals on it.’ (public sector policy maker)

The following emerged from the research as the top ten softer skillsgained by international volunteers:

1. global awareness2. adaptability 3. interpersonal skills4. handling responsibility 5. stress management6. self-assurance7. problem solving8. exchanging skills9. strategic thinking10. a sense of humour.

1. Global awareness Ten years ago, while in their sixties, Richard and Mary Simpson went toPakistan to work on a health project at a refugee camp. When they

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returned, they wrote a report to the donors outlining how they felt theeffectiveness of the project could be improved. As a result of this the donoremployed Mary to implement some of their suggestions, such as securingfunding, extending services and setting up the project as a non-govern-mental organisation (NGO). Mary carried on in this post for a number ofyears and visited Pakistan several times a year, though she was based inthe UK. Despite the fact that they are now in their late seventies, Mary hasbegun a PhD using the health project as a case study, and Richard hascompleted an Open University degree in third world development.

Global awareness was the most important skill that volunteers felt theygained, and was mentioned by all the volunteers who participated in theresearch. Examples were many and varied, and ranged from specific learn-ing about cultural practices to broader and more sophisticated worldviews. However, employers did not prioritise this skill in the same waythat volunteers did. This was because many of the employers did notoperate on a global scale. Undoubtedly, in the future global knowledgewill be prioritised more highly than it is at the moment.

Employers were concerned about issues of diversity in their work-forces. Many commented on major difficulties they had in actualisingequal opportunities or diversity objectives: ‘We have problems recruit-ing Chinese people, Indians and other groups. We need role models whounderstand diversity’ (NHS manager).

Despite this, only a small minority of returned volunteers felt theyhad been able to transfer their global awareness into the workplace.Teachers often fared well at being able to transfer global knowledge toothers as it fulfilled a curriculum objective, and children responded tothe excitement of having contact with another culture (see teachingcase study, above). Other professional environments were not soconducive to this kind of exchange.

The evidence suggests that global awareness as a valuable work‘skill’ will grow to be ever more important as the world becomes moreinterlinked and the UK workforce becomes more diverse. There seemsto be a major opportunity for returned volunteers to help employersachieve their diversity objectives via communicating knowledge aboutdifferent ways of life and pioneering a culture of open minds.



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2. Adaptability Volunteers found that volunteer assignments were subject to inaccu-rate descriptions and sudden changes. Funding for projects was not verypredictable and sometimes needed to be secured. At a broader level,political and environmental situations were not certain, and in extremecases volunteers were flown back to the UK. Volunteers as a result feltmuch more able to adapt to change than they had been before.

Sophie volunteered as an HIV health worker in Africa. She found shehad to cope with uncertainty in a new way: ‘Something went wrongevery day, but you just had to learn how to cope with it. Living in theUK there is a gloss of everything being OK, which there wasn’t overthere. We had virtually no resources, and that meant you had to docreative mindwork and adapt continually to what might happen next.’On returning to the UK she felt unsure of what she might do next: ‘I’man independently minded person, I have transferable skills, but I needto work for an imaginative employer.’

People’s ability to cope with complexity and uncertainty is increas-ingly prioritised by employers, who need individuals who can take themthrough organisational restructuring and change. Employers did asso-ciate adaptability as a valuable asset brought back by returned volun-teers and valued the fact that volunteers were likely to cope well withchange. However, some worried that they could not provide the samechallenge in the UK that volunteers had experienced overseas: ‘I wonderhow well volunteers would cope with a more static position. Might theyget frustrated and feel unfulfilled?’ (SME manager). This fear wasgrounded, as shown in some cases by volunteers who did not want towork for massive bureaucratic organisations which would not allowthem to utilise their adaptability.

The research suggests that there is an opportunity for employers tocreate innovative roles that allow people to work across departmentsand positions in a way that is challenging and taps into their skills ofadaptability. Employers would thereby be likely to keep the people whoare best able to take them through the periods of change that so manyorganisations are currently experiencing.


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3. Interpersonal skillsMany volunteers felt that their volunteering experience had helpedthem focus on how to achieve work objectives via collaboration withother people.

Rob worked as a computer programmer in the UK before volunteer-ing in Africa. He found the most difficult aspect of his placement waswinning the confidence of the people with whom he was working: ‘Ilearned pretty quickly that the Africans did not like to disappoint otherpeople. This meant when I phoned up and asked about computer prob-lems they would tell me that everything was fine, even if it wasn’t! Itwas only after devoting time to people that I was able to help them withtheir IT problems.’ Rob felt that this experience improved his employ-ability: ‘I came back a better product than when I went. I think I havemore understanding of other people’s positions.’

Interpersonal and team-working skills are greatly prized by employ-ers and rank high in the skills gap findings of the government’s skillstaskforce. Networking and negotiation were thought to fall into the samecategory of skills: ‘The public sector is seriously looking at developingbusiness skills. We need people with negotiating and contract manage-ment skills. We are using more services externally now and we needpeople who can perform as intelligent clients’ (public sector policy maker).

However, the majority of employers did not fully appreciate the skills-sharing aspect of volunteering. Their vision of altruistic focused devel-opment work led to impressions of volunteers fulfilling isolated rolesbased on giving and receiving: ‘What volunteers do is not very visibleto me. I’m not sure how many working relationships they are able tocreate while volunteering. If networking is an opportunity, then that isvery useful to us, and if that person goes into a global business, the linkscould have lasting benefit’ (corporate human resources director).

Employers did not therefore necessarily link volunteers’ interpersonaland team-working skills with their volunteering experience, and conse-quently valuable networking skills were not utilised in the UK.

4. Handling responsibility Volunteers frequently filled a more senior post as a volunteer than theydid in the UK. This meant that their ability to handle responsibility wasenhanced.

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Ian was a pharmacist in the UK. When he volunteered in Indonesiahe found himself in quite a different role: ‘There were so few peoplequalified in my area that I found myself working on the pharmaceuti-cal policy for the country. It was a very responsible position to be in,but they were incredibly relaxed about it. They just told me to get onwith it. There was no one else to do it.’ As was the case with many volun-teers, Ian spent the latter half of his time there training his replace-ment.

Very few volunteers identified leadership as a quality they had devel-oped overseas, though they did often talk about greater levels ofresponsibility. However, employers noted that returned volunteersactually made very good leaders when they were given the opportunity.This is because they tended to use very ‘new leadership’ tactics, suchas effective communication of ideas, collaboration and empoweringothers, rather than more traditional and hierarchical methods.

The chief executive of a small firm had employed several returnedvolunteers in his business. He felt that what they exhibited in commonwas a mature and rounded approach to their responsibilities and thatthey had real leadership skills because of this. However, he remainedsceptical about volunteering overall: ‘I’m not sure how I’d feel if oneof my employees asked me for unpaid leave. I’d prefer them to developtheir role within the context of the business. In practice, the experienceyou develop in the UK is more applicable.’

This shows how the practicalities of transfer costs and the loss of up-to-date knowledge of a sector can really overshadow the benefits ofvolunteering for employers, particularly small employers, even if theycan see some leadership benefits when the volunteers return. Therecommendations in this report will focus on some ways in which thesebarriers can be overcome.

5. Stress management Both employers and international volunteers reported improved levelsof stress management after the volunteering placement. Volunteersshowed a new ability to harness stress to achieve a sense of urgencywithout letting it overpower them.

This ability to deal with stress was very positive for employers, whohad identified stress as a very real issue affecting their business. An NOP

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World for Investors in People survey identified stress as a barrier toproductivity. About 15 per cent of smaller companies, and 8 per centof larger ones, said stress was an issue.43 Stress was being combated viawork-life balance initiatives such as flexible working hours, job-sharingand other related family-friendly policies. Some employers, because theyconsidered that volunteering was strongly associated with personaltime, believed that international volunteering would be good for stress-management problems because of the ‘rest’ from work it presented.

Volunteers did feel rejuvenated after their experiences abroad but didnot put their ability to deal with stress down to the ‘rest’ that they hadhad. Instead they felt that the challenges they had faced had helpedthem to gain a more balanced perspective about how to cope whenthings go wrong. One volunteer described how she had learned thatpanicking worsened the problem when she had seen how people haddealt with major flooding that had taken place in her village duringher volunteering placement: ‘It changed my view about things. I stilltake my deadlines seriously, but I know I’m not going to die!’

6. Self-assuranceVolunteers were frequently confident, but seldom over-confident. Thisis shown by employers, who rarely used the word ‘confident’ whendescribing returned volunteers, preferring instead to describe them asmature, self-assured or cool-headed.

Self-assurance was developed by volunteers successfully coping withhigher levels of responsibility in work and acclimatising to a newculture. They also met and worked with a whole set of new people,which led them to develop new senses of personal potential. Thegaining of self-assurance was particularly valuable when volunteers hadnot been particularly confident before their volunteering experience.There were many examples of previously under-confident individualswho had successfully gained promotion or who had been able toapproach work with a new sense of challenge.

Rachel’s self-esteem was very low when she dropped out of a gradu-ate training scheme. She volunteered in an administrative capacity ona project for young people for eight months. During that time she waspromoted twice. She became much more self-assured about her abili-ties to develop other people. On her return she applied for a job as a

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trainer working with corporate teams in a centre for training andpersonal development: ‘They acknowledged that I didn’t have the paidexperience, but they took a gamble on me because of my enthusiasm.’

Self-assurance was not automatically transferred into the UK success-fully. In fact, self-assurance was sometimes weakened if volunteers haddifficulty readjusting to the workplace. In the worst cases, wherevolunteers had had negative reactions from employers who did notvalue their experiences, it was actually replaced by under-confidence.

7. Problem solving Volunteering overseas can involve a great deal of imaginative action.Teachers have to create interactive classrooms with next to no resourcesor money. Computer experts need to set up technology in buildingssubject to frequent power failures or floods. Health education workersneed to communicate messages about Aids without causing offence.Challenges such as these can seem overwhelming to new volunteers,but a combination of trial and error and a determination to achieve theend result frequently turns volunteers into effective problem solvers.

Alan worked as a business adviser to small businesses in EasternEurope. He said the direct decisions he had to make were far scarierthan when in the UK because he knew they would directly affectpeople’s livelihoods: ‘As a management consultant I problem solved ona fairly abstract level. Here it was the real thing and I had no referencebooks to fall back on. I had to advise people directly on whether or notto invest in certain sectors and countries.’

Coping with adversity was a major factor in working for employersin the developing world. Problem solving was therefore one of the skillsthat was most recognised by employers, and one which transferredreadily back into the workplace.

The employer of a returned health worker identified problem solvingas the key benefit to the department gained as a result of the volun-teering experience: ‘She was able to draft a really good trainingprogramme for us when she came back. I think she had had so muchexperience of spotting where things needed to improve and doing some-thing about it. She definitely came back more innovative and resource-ful’ (NHS manager).

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8. Exchanging skills The ability to exchange skills and knowledge is fundamental to theinternational volunteering process and something in which volunteerswere constantly involved. The learning and teaching of a new languagewas an achievement that was particularly prized and the most obviousexample of an exchange of skills. Volunteers devoted a great deal of timeand effort to mentoring training those who would inherit their work.

On their return to the UK volunteers were sometimes able to trans-fer new skills and knowledge back into the workplace. One localauthority manager of a returned social worker was very open to findingout about different cultural practices and methods. A positive experi-ence with a particular returned volunteer had encouraged her to giveother staff opportunities of this kind, and she was holding a place openfor someone that had recently been recruited while they completedsome overseas work: ‘She was able to test me out as well. She gave somereally innovative presentations and made me realise just how blaséabout resources we are here ... I value the new ideas that these kindsof experiences bring.’

However, in most cases volunteers were unable to exchange newlearning particularly effectively because of the gap that currentlyexists between employers’ and volunteers’ beliefs about internationalvolunteering. Volunteers missed the culture of learning they had expe-rienced while abroad, and they frequently commented on the frustra-tion of being unable to exchange new knowledge and ideas with othersin the workplace.

9. Strategic thinking Because of the special nature of volunteer roles, volunteers were ofteninvolved during their assignments in shaping their own professionalresponsibilities and goals. Planning for the future with colleaguesand counterparts was also very important. These tasks enhanced plan-ning and strategic-thinking skills. Volunteers had also often devotedquite a lot of time to thinking about their personal values and ambi-tions and therefore were good at thinking strategically in their ownlives: ‘I had realised what was important to me. I had whittled downwhat I wanted to do’ (returned volunteer).

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Better strategic-thinking skills, combined with a wider global view,meant that volunteers often had an excellent grasp of the widercontext in which their organisations operated, and they frequentlyexpressed views about new trends: ‘There has been a blurring of theNGO and the business sector. Business getting involved in internationalvolunteering seemed to epitomise to me where business should begoing’ (returned volunteer).

Employers did not often mention strategic-thinking skills as a benefitof international volunteering, perhaps because a low interest in globalissues and more predictable job roles and career paths gave volunteersless opportunity to use their strategic-thinking skills in a UK context.Only more progressive employers expressed the preference for employ-ees who had a better understanding of the wider context and the strate-gic-thinking skills to plan the future of their own careers and roles.

10. A sense of humour Many volunteers commented on how they now had a better under-standing of how humour and enjoyment was a necessary and valuablepart of one’s working life, particularly during difficult conditions. Onevolunteer was struck by the cheerfulness in the face of tragedy shownby the people in the village in Africa where he was working: ‘In the class-room there was a blackboard listing the people who had died [fromAids] that week. But it was still a good place to be. It was a happy placeto be, and I admired that.’ Another commented: ‘There was so muchsinging and dancing. Even in meetings! It never failed to make melaugh.’

Volunteers found that this approach helped them enjoy slightlydifferent and more pleasurable working practices in the UK: ‘I nowconsciously take time out to have a coffee and a laugh with someone’

However, because employers frequently associated internationalvolunteering with crises, they did not see a good sense of humour as aproduct of the experience.

Summary The skills being transferred most effectively into the workplace, andthose most often recognised by employers as likely to be possessed byreturned volunteers, were:

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● adaptability● handling responsibility● stress management ● self-assurance ● problem solving.

Employers recognised these skills because they were most obviouslylinked to their perceptions of the lifestyle challenge that internationalvolunteering presented, ie, living in difficult conditions, coping withcrises and delivering assistance to the needy. Although employersmentioned these skills as being linked to volunteering, only a minor-ity saw them as applicable in a professional UK context.

Skills that employers did not associate with international volun-teering and which were therefore difficult for volunteers to transfer intothe UK labour market were:

● global awareness ● interpersonal skills ● exchanging skills● strategic thinking● a sense of humour.

These skills were not transferable for a variety of reasons, though prin-cipally because of the strong UK-centric perspective of employers andtheir lack of appreciation of the collaborative nature of internationalvolunteering. Additionally, the fact that many volunteers were awareof the attitudinal and practical barriers raised by employers towardsinternational volunteering meant that they were inhibiting an effec-tive transfer by isolating their volunteering skills and mindset fromtheir UK roles.

In summary, the evidence shows that individual volunteers findthemselves caught in a ‘skills trap’. This skills trap describes the inabil-ity of the volunteer, who has developed the attributes that the labourmarket demands, to transfer their skills and knowledge effectivelybecause organisations are incapable of adequately recognising oraccommodating international volunteers or their skills.

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5. Closing the gap: conclusions andrecommendations

Overall, the evidence from our research suggests that the skills, knowl-edge and perspective gained by international volunteers are assetscurrently hugely under-used by UK employers. The external pressuresof change and a long tradition of UK-centric perspectives act as barri-ers to recognising experiences which currently fall outside the standardremit of career progression. International volunteering could, in manyareas, act as a fast track to workforce development, but in most casesit is not on the employer agenda. This missed opportunity stems fromthe combination of three problems, all of which could be resolved withimagination and new organisational support.

1. Mis-categorisation of volunteer experienceMany employers view time and effort spent on volunteering abroadas being purely personal, altruistic, and unrelated to work. Wherethey do make provision for it, international voluntary placementtends to be understood as a ‘career break’ or motivational policy,rather than an investment in broadening the perspective and lead-ership abilities of an employee. Despite the strong links betweenhigher order skills and international volunteering, there has beenlittle thought given to how international volunteers can offer prac-tical solutions to the skills gaps identified by UK employers.

2. Fragmentation and short-termism Although many employers are positive in principle about volun-teering, they find it difficult to cope with the short-term organi-sational demands that it creates, and even harder to plan for the


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longer term in ways which maximise the potential return to theirorganisation of supporting and welcoming returned volunteers.Such short-termism carries big risks for employers, because thoseunable to adapt to a long-term view of flexible career patterns foremployees will fail to attract or develop the best people. Theseemployers will be overtaken by more progressive employers, whoare already beginning to embrace the flexibility that modernemployees demand and incorporating the benefits into theirorganisations.

3. Lack of evaluation and accreditation The generic learning most commonly experienced by interna-tional volunteers – adapting to change, learning to appreciate otherperspectives and cultures, working in teams and combining limitedresources in innovative ways – is often not properly understood ororganised into accreditation or evaluation frameworks. As a result,employers underrate their potential application to work situations,and individuals often struggle to relate their experience to thecontexts in which they find themselves when they return, increas-ing the risk of ‘working culture shock’.

These problems stem not from any fundamental difference of objectiveor perspective between volunteers and employers, but from lack ofawareness and of innovative organisational responses to this growingarea of activity. They could be addressed through the following fiverecommendations.

Link volunteering explicitly to career development and create sharedobjectives between employers and individualsThe language of volunteering should be translated much more clearlyinto the language of employability. Effective evaluation and accredita-tion of higher order skills, shared goals and employer support couldmake a huge difference to the degree of understanding and recognitionemployers give to volunteering placements and experience.

● An international volunteer accreditation scheme, linked to specificsectors and professions, which over time develops common stan-dards and evaluation tools for use before, during and after volun-


Closing the gap: conclusions and recommendations

teering placements, could be developed by volunteer agencies inpartnership with employers and professional associations. In thisway higher order skills gain could be tracked and then presentedto employers in a simple format. The Department of Education andSkills and the Department for International Development shouldwork in tandem to find ways to promote and standardise thescheme so that it has relevance to filling skills gaps in the economyas well as fulfilling a wider aim of cultural understanding. Businessschools and other providers of occupational postgraduate studiescould also take advantage of the higher order skills that interna-tional volunteering develops by including modules which could beundertaken by individuals while on international volunteeringassignments.

● Explicit sharing of business and learning objectives between volun-teers and employers is clearly necessary. Equally important, though,is communication within organisations – encouraging middleand line managers to work with the broad objectives and benefitsrecognised by senior managers and some human resources depart-ments. As the international volunteering field develops, greaterclarity about the motivations, expectations and objectives of thosegoing abroad is needed. This recommendation needs to be led bysenior management, who are already most receptive to interna-tional volunteering, and cascaded to middle management moreeffectively.

● Employer support from volunteer sending agencies in the form ofinformation, alliances and advice could help create more positiveexpectations of the career benefits of international volunteering.An information pack and a helpline which volunteers could giveto their employer would also provide advice on some of the prac-tical issues employers currently find difficult, such as recruitment,retraining and the transferral of international knowledge.

Even with these kinds of supports in place, volunteers are likely to retainsome responsibility for initiating and shaping change through theirown efforts. Volunteer sending agencies need to advise returned volun-teers on how best to communicate with employers, both before and

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after their volunteer placements, to help ensure they are not disad-vantaged and can transfer new skills effectively.

Redefine organisational diversity and equal opportunities policies toinclude broader concepts of cultural openness and global awarenessThe idea of a globally and culturally aware workforce is a compellingone whose importance will continue to increase. UK employers need toexpand their approach to diversity beyond narrow targets and tradi-tional equal opportunities policies and towards a broader view ofawareness of the wider world, innovative capacity and inclusiveness.This newly defined commitment to diversity could include a muchwider variety of initiatives which all employees could be involved in andmotivated by, such as interchange workshops that seek to gather inno-vative ideas from other cultures, and an ongoing commitment tointernational students or volunteers. Embracing international volun-teering is also an effective and easily monitored way of incorporatingopen minds into the workplace via the real life, on the ground experi-ence of international volunteers. It is only through enabling individu-als to express international knowledge and cultural openness in thisway that narrow perspectives will be broken down to allow the UK toperform more effectively in a global context.

Practical support for self-managed careersEmployer responses to workforce churn are currently centred on a spiralof poaching, counter-poaching, and pay and advertising wars. There isa real need for employers to respond more positively to employeedemand for more innovative careers. Employers in all sectors should beencouraging their staff to view their career not as an incrementalprogression up the rigidly structured ranks of a career ladder but as avocation which could involve much higher levels of flexibility andseveral spells working outside the organisation. A lifelong commitmentto working in a particular field no longer needs to involve 35 or 40 yearsin the same kind of job.

Volunteering, alongside other initiatives such as cross-sector alliances,secondments, and twinning, needs to become a clearly recognised, legit-imate area of activity within a self-managed portfolio of career devel-opment opportunities. These organisational tools need separate policies

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that acknowledge their vocational benefits and evaluate results. Evenwhere an individual may not expect to return to exactly the same jobor role, there could still be broad benefit in employers supporting thedevelopment of clearer long-term objectives.

● User-friendly secondment and leave of absence policies which do notexclude international volunteering can significantly help employ-ers to attract and retain staff. It is important that such policies areclearly defined by specific evaluations and return strategies.

● There needs to be differentiation between policies which supportfamily-friendly working or work-life balance and those whichsupport self-managed careers. Flexible careers bring economicbenefits to organisations in the form of cross-fertilisation of ideas,informal networks and skilled and motivated workers.International volunteers should not be penalised by downgradingor demotion by employers who assume they have not been under-taking proper work.

● Better career guidance for every individual throughout theircareer should be a nationwide and government-supported enti-tlement. Much current careers advice and skill accreditation is outof line with the newer ways of working and abilities discussed inthis report. Individuals should be able to access opportunities fromwithin existing jobs, not only when looking for new ones.

● Financial borrowing should be available on favourable terms forcareer opportunities. Career development loans for adults stillfocus on fairly narrow definitions of education and training. Aspecific and government run fund giving favourable loans onwider definitions of career development would enable individualsto gain the higher order skills the economy needs.

Continuous learning and reskilling for volunteersThere is an imperative need for employers to see ‘time out’ in an inter-national volunteering context as ‘time in’. International volunteerspresent a whole host of valuable skills for employers, but employers doneed to plan for the changed skills and perspectives of returningvolunteers. Instead of treating them as economic absentees or as anadministrative inconvenience, they should demonstrate a commit-

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ment to retention and motivation by helping to reskill returned volun-teers and bring them up to date with recent developments, as well asby seeking ways to take advantage of such new skills and perspectives.

● Refresher courses and retraining which update on product, prac-tice and policy developments specific to the UK should be providedby employers for returning staff. Retraining could take the formof either an informal session with another member of staff or, inthe case of larger organisations, a more structured refreshercourse. Given the context of an already highly skilled individualand very specific and fairly easily assimilated subject matter, thiswould be a small investment in terms of time and cost, but wouldsend a powerful and motivating message to employees aboutcommitment to retention. This is, of course, especially importantin the public sector, where retention and low morale is a criticalissue.

● Learning packages are a vital tool to help close the gap, both actualand perceived, between employers and volunteers. New technologysuch as e-learning via the internet and CD-ROMs could be high-lighted in volunteer literature to help keep volunteers up to date,particularly at the end of their placements. Nominated supportnetworks described below could facilitate ongoing contact andupdates in the form of newsletters and emails between volunteersand employers during placements themselves.

● Volunteer sending agencies should encourage volunteers to nomi-nate support networks in the UK which would include colleaguesand employers. These networks would be designed to provide aroute to dissemination of new learning and experiences and helpminimise the distance which grows between employers and volun-teers during overseas assignments. Remote volunteering couldalso become an opportunity for support networks, who couldshare skills such as website design and technical know-how andprovide services such as coaching and fundraising.

● Specifically designated tasks and goals that take advantage ofvolunteers’ changed perspectives can present real opportunities foremployers. Responsibilities such as diversity strategies, globalawareness or mentoring others, which are appropriate to returned

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international volunteers rich in higher order skills, are likely toattract people to the organisation and foster loyalty.

A ‘people pool’ recruitment agency trading in global human resourcesMany employers are reluctant to invest in the long-term motivation andemployability of individual workers because they are highly uncertainas to whether the benefits will accrue to their organisations; returnedvolunteers are often looking for a shift of focus or perspective, and there-fore seek work opportunities in a different context from the one theyleft, even if they stay in the same field. This reflects a wider structuralproblem facing employers, and one which hinders them in their poten-tial investment even in a situation of widespread skill shortages; thelong-term nature of the return and the danger of poaching and free-riding by other employers make any commitment hazardous.

There is a real opportunity for a volunteer sending agency, or anotherentrepreneurial party, to set up a recruitment agency, possibly commer-cially run, which employers can contact for new staff or associates. Suchan agency could fill a niche for employers seeking skills such as globalawareness, adaptability and handling complex challenges. The agencycould also offer support services and advice to organisations needingto manage the process of staff leaving, returning and joining from over-seas.

The opportunity for employers, or employer alliances, to trade inglobal human resources would help ensure that they were able toreplace absent staff more efficiently. Volunteers would therefore havea degree of security combined with the flexibility of returning to adifferent location or employer, and participating employers wouldenjoy preferential access to a pool of experienced, highly motivatedvolunteers.

In public services such as health, education and social services, sucha network could also be linked to exchange programmes and skill-sharing between different countries, both among industrialised coun-tries needing to cross-fertilise innovation and learn from one another’sexperiences, and between public sectors in the developed and devel-oping world.

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Conclusion: the global communityGlobalisation is understood mainly as a set of processes driven bycommercialisation and market exchange. In fact, the integration of ourcommunications networks and higher mobility among the world’spopulation make possible a much wider array of exchange, collabora-tion and enrichment than that driven purely by the desire to makemoney. Volunteering is enjoying a resurgence within the domesticeconomies of most industrialised societies, as governments recognisethe economic value of voluntary activity, and all sectors appreciate anewthe value of a strong social and civic underpinning for economic life.

International volunteering has the potential to be a central routetowards a new global community, in which the voluntary exchange oftime and skills can provide stronger underpinnings to the struggle forcoexistence and sustainability across national borders. Its growingprofile and popularity partly reflect this potential, as well as its appealin terms of personal fulfilment and self-definition. But, to do so, it needsa sustainable base in the domestic lives which volunteers lead, bothbefore and after their spells abroad. This base is always characterisedin part by working life. In a world where people are increasingly under-stood as the most important organisational resource, employers shouldhave a strong interest in finding ways to support and benefit from thegrowth of this new kind of human traffic.

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Notes1. “‘10,000’ teacher posts shownvacant’” The Guardian Education,London, 2nd March 2001 and UniversityGuide; Social Work, May 20012. Horne M, 2001, Classroom Assistance,Demos, London and ‘Stress makes 25%of GPs want to quit the NHS’, theGuardian, London, 18th October 20013. A Fresh Start (The Moser report), 1999,DfEE4. Workforce Development Project,analysis paper, 2001, Performance andInnovation Unit, Cabinet office, (pro-ductivity)5. ‘Offshore outsourcing’, 1st October2001, www.cio.com/CIO Trendlines 6. Ellis V, 2001, The Connected Corporation,Accenture, London 7. Leadbeater C and Oakley K, 2001,Surfing the Long Wave: KnowledgeEntrepeneurship in Britain, Demos,London8. The Wish List, UniversumCommunications report on Graduatesin the Guardian, Saturday 13th October2001, p.1 and p.89. Social Trends 30, 2000, GovernmentStatistical Service, London p.6110. Sector Workforce Development Plan,June 2001, Healthwork UK, the NationalTraining Organisation for the HealthSector11. Knell J, 2000, The Quiet Birth of theFree Worker, Industrial Society, London12. ‘Surveying the Elancescape’,Wilkinson H, www.elancentric.comNovember 200013. The Wish List, UniversumCommunications, op cit, p.214. Sector Workforce Development Plan, opcit15. Jobs in managerial, professional andassociate professional categories

expanded to account for 37% of theworkforce in 1999 compared with 27%in 1971. Skills task force, 2001www.skillsbase.dfee.gov.uk/Narrative,DfES16. Confederation of British Industry,June 2001, Employment Trends Survey,London17. Captains of Industry Survey, 2000,MORI, London 18. Horne M et al, due for publication in2001, Leadership: the challenge for all?Institute of Management/Demos, London19. ‘Morris sets out vision for worldclass workforce’, 16th October 2001,DfES News Centre, London20. Labour Force Survey, 2000, Office forNational Statistics, DfES21. Eurostat, 1993, Statistical Office ofthe European Communities,Luxembourg.22. Labour Force Survey, 2000, op cit23. Johnson M, 2000, Winning the PeopleWars, Financial Times Prentice Hall24. Workforce Development Project, opcit, emerging conclusions and new steps25. ibid, Barriers facing employers andinfluencing demand26. The Wish List, UniversumCommunications, op cit, p. 1027. Labour Force Surveys, Eurostat, 1998in Social Trends 30, 2000 edition, Officefor National Statistics, The StationeryOffice, London28. Lof E, in HP/de Tijd, 27th July 2001,The Netherlands29. ‘A call to all’, the Guardian, London,Wed Oct 10th 200130. Horne M et al, op cit31. Kaplan A, ‘UnderstandingDevelopment as a Living Process’ inLewis D, and Wallace T, eds, 2000 NewRoles and Relevance, Kumarian Press,Connecticut, USA p.32


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32. ‘Quicker than the NHS’ The HealthExchange, Magazine of InternationalHealth Exchange, August 2001, p.15 33. ‘I have long believed this interde-pendence defines the new world welive in’ in ‘The power of communitycan change the world’ speech by TonyBlair to the Labour Party Conference inBrighton, 2nd October 2001, availableat www.labour.org.uk 34. VSO statistics are available onwww.vso.org.uk/media/stats35. A list of volunteer sending agenciesis available on the National Centre forVolunteering’s website at www.volunteering.org.uk 36. VSO statistics, op cit37. An estimated 200,000 Britons aged18-24 embark on gap-year travel and afurther 15,000 on organised expedi-tions every year, ‘Your place or mine’2001, a short film for gap travellers co-produced by VSO and Tourism Concernavailable from Tourism Concern,www.tourismconcern.org.uk38. Institute for Volunteering Research.Statistics on public sector support forvolunteering available atwww.irv.orgg.uk/facts39. ‘The future of technical assistance

and capacity building’ remarks byEveline Herfkens, Minister forDevelopment Cooperation of theNetherlands, Washington DC, 30 April2001 see www.worldbank.org/wbi/-HerfkensremarksApril30.pdf.Information about the end of largescale recruitment for long-term volun-teering programmes in Ireland avail-able from APSO (Agency for PersonalService Overseas) www.apso.ie40. The Active Community Unit in theHome Office is working closely withBusiness in the Community to promotethis challenge. More information onwww.corpcommunityinvestment.org.uk 41. VSO set up a Business Partnershipsscheme in December 1999. Participantsof the scheme include Shell, Accenture,HP Foods, Andersen, McKinsey andAmerican Express. RaleighInternational run InternationalManagement Challenges for teamsfrom organisations such as Swiss Re.and Hewlett Packard42. ‘Overseas secondments: justified orjolly?’ Haysworks, 2001 43. ‘Lack of training seen as biggest bar-rier to raising productivity’ Financial Times, London, 27 October 2001


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