Why Volunteer?

Volunteering at ECU gives you the chance to start your career journey early and in the right direction.

Volunteer work is unpaid work that can be undertaken with a broad range of organisations and in many different roles. People volunteer for many reasons, the most common of which is a desire to use their time to give back to their communities.

Benefits of volunteering

While there is no financial gain in volunteering, there are plenty of other rewarding benefits, including:

• boosting your self-confidence;
• making a positive difference to other people’s lives;
• enriching your community;
• testing out careers and industries that interest you;
• learning new skills and developing existing ones;
• enhancing your employability and job-readiness by giving you real-world experience;
• accessing useful training that is sometimes offered by volunteer organisations;
• expanding your personal networks (making new friends and contacts);
• expanding your professional networks (making career contacts and getting to know people who might act as a referee for your job applications);
• improving your CV, and contributing towards experience you could discuss in a job interview; and
• gaining personal fulfilment and having fun!

How to volunteer

On VolunteerHub, you can find:

• a list of current volunteer opportunities;
• various resources related to volunteering; and
• links to external volunteer organisations.

If an organisation has posted an advert for a volunteering opportunity on the VolunteerHub or elsewhere, you can contact them directly. They are likely to ask you about the skills and experience you can offer and how much time you can spare (and when).

Alternatively, you can contact us at careers@ecu.edu.au for further advice and information about upcoming projects and volunteer opportunities.

Volunteer training

We offer all enrolled students a free Volunteer Induction Workshop that we strongly recommend all student volunteers attend. Inductions are run frequently across all ECU campuses, and only take about an hour. At the induction, we will give you valuable information about volunteering, including:

• duty of care;
• Occupational Health and Safety;
• insurance;
• equal opportunity and diversity;
• confidentiality and data protection;
• expenses;
• organisation expectations of student volunteers;
• student volunteer expectations of organisations; and
• your rights as a volunteer.

We will also provide you with a list of current volunteering projects and opportunities, which you can sign up to at your induction and get involved straight away!

Happy volunteering!