There are 8 critical skills that students need to be competent to be career-ready; teamwork, digital technology, problem-solving, written communication, professional work ethic, leadership, career management and multicultural fluency. Student volunteering is the key.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, students are already in need of upskilling themselves for the workforce and now that the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic head-on, we will further see the impact of it on students and it’s effect on the quality of their education.
Students who undertake internships or volunteering during study are 2.5 times more likely to start a new job after graduating than those who don’t.
Furthermore, students whose courses included a service-learning program and those who completed a capstone course had between 16 and 49% greater odds, respectively, of starting a new job.
Communiteer believes there is a part to play in partnering with educational institutions, giving students the opportunity to utilise the skills they have learned and provide the real-world experience.
Via virtual volunteering, students can:
Communiteer will support universities in existing or newly created mentorship program connecting existing students with alumni and university program runners to later collaborate on social impact activities. This will be an attractive offering for future and existing students looking to improve their employability.
Communiteer will support university program runners integrating virtual volunteering in their placement programs, capstone subjects or as extracurricular activities. By leveraging the existing relationships built-in Stage 1, each group will be introduced to a not-for-profit client with a project on the Communiteer platform. The mentor will oversee the progress of the student carrying out the project.
By maintaining engagement with current students, university program developers and alumni, we can feed this energy into Stage 1 to form a continuous cycle. As students are further engaged with the guidance and support of the university, they will be encouraged to contribute as a mentor post-graduation, growing the community exponentially.
We’re building a community on our platform entirely dedicated to the universities joining our platform. See the work of student volunteers, stories about their experiences and details about the different ways universities are integrating volunteering.
As Communiteer is a platform that allows volunteers to give their time, grow their sense of purpose and connect with community leaders, it was a natural fit to participate in this year’s National Student Volunteer Week for 2020.
In celebrating #NSVW20 we created a webinar to promote student volunteering, shared various pieces of content on social media and participated in the University of Sydney Business School Careers Expo.
Communiteer engaged with Macquarie University (MQU) MBA students to collaborate with skilled volunteers for the goal of improving bottlenecks within our consultation
process.
This benefitted the students in providing workplace experience and Communiteer with a project designed by
skilled volunteers, increasing our capacity.
National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), Job Outlook 2020
Angie L. Miller, Louis M. Rocconi & Amber D. Dumford, (2017) Focus on the finish line: does high-impact practice participation influence career plans and early job attainment?
Collaboration between students, staff and alumni alike for the purpose of social impact.