UK: Lizzie Cole – the young voice of English volunteers

For the last three years Lizzie Cole (aged 25) has been , the Head of Student Volunteering, a branch Volunteering England, an independent voluntary agency committed to supporting, enabling and celebrating volunteering in all its diversity. Volunteering England and Student Volunteering merged in 2007.

She is also the chair of the Young Achievers Trust (www.youngachievers.co.uk) which makes awards to young achievers who are volunteers, social entrepreneurs and activists. Previously Lizzie was a volunteer in Oxfam, The Food Chain and in local community groups at university.

What is Student Volunteering?
My team specifically works with student volunteering groups based in universities and colleges around the country helping them to increase the quality and quantity of volunteering opportunities. We also represent these groups to government, policy makers and the press.

What is your opinion about the third sector in UK?
The third sector is a great asset to the United Kingdom, in terms of the contribution to the economy, services we deliver, staff we employ and the creative way in which we work. Despite this our sector is not perfect, it appears to be fragmented and constantly hindered by short funding cycles which leads to a high turn over of staff, and the direction of our work can be shaped by funders and the latest interest of government.
Luckily for us volunteering is high on the agenda in England. In the last few days the commission on the future of volunteering has published its findings, and youth volunteering has never been so high on the agenda. However it is not difficult to see that there is a clear need for more sustained investment in the structures that support volunteering and form the backbone of our third sector and the United Kingdom.

What, in your opinion, is the potential for partnerships to be established between the private sector and the third sector?
There is great potential for partnerships between the private and third sector, but the third sector has to work hard not to be the poor relation. There has to be mutual respect from both sides and part of this is ensuring that the private sector partner is entering the relationship for the right reasons. Funding or in kind support from the private sector will only work if there is genuine interest in the cause. It is of course important the third sector partner is also entering the relationship with expectations that the private sector has needs as well and it really has to be a two way arrangement. There is a lot to be shared and learned both ways in this type of partnership, and for the private sector we can share our responsiveness, professionalism, ability to deliver on tight budgets in a creative joined up way, we can also lead the way in demonstrating and supporting employer supported volunteering opportunities which add so much to the capabilities of the work force.

What dealings, if any, does your organisation have with third sector organisations in other European countries? 
Volunteering England is a member of CEV, the European Volunteer Centre, and the twice yearly conferences are a good source of networking and information exchange. The Institute for Volunteering Research (www.ivr.org.uk) has recently been involved in a few research projects in cooperation with other countries including the MOVE project, which explored methods to recognise and accredit skills gained through volunteering. IVR also gave a presentation at a regional conference on volunteering in Aosta, Northern Italy last year.

What lessons do you think your organisation has to offer Europe?s third sector? 
I think there are lots of interesting comparisons to be made about different cultures and attitudes to volunteering. For example, in some ways England has a very different tradition of voluntary action from Eastern European countries which have recently become democratised after the fall of the USSR and communism.

We should also recognise that voluntary organisations and national governments are confronting similar issues throughout Europe, such as re-introducing community involvement programmes for young people, improving training and development opportunities for long-term unemployed people or finding better ways to involve people who are isolated or excluded from society. There's a lot of debate in England about how volunteering can help to tackle these issues, and I expect that there are similar debates happening in other countries in Europe.

What advice would you give to a young person wanting to make a career in the third sector?
Top of the list would be get some volunteering experience; a degree just isn?t enough any more. There are so many great volunteering opportunities out there you can really broaden your experiences and have something more to talk about in an interview and to pull on when you are in the role.
There is no denying the third sector is a competitive work place, small organisations struggle to sustain training and development budgets and with short term funding you need to show that you can hit the ground running and are competent from the start. Having said that, it doesn?t mean that the third sector isn?t a place to develop a career, you get such a great breadth of experience if you are prepared to take every opportunity you can, you just might have to work a bit harder than a prepared graduate scheme in other sectors.

Do you have a particularly interesting or favourite website to suggest to our readers?
The Student Volunteers Network is a great place to meet other student volunteers, share ideas, plan joint projects and discuss hot topics http://svnetwork.ning.com/.

www.studentvol.org.uk