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If you are looking for a summer job or a gap year, voluntary work abroad may be the perfect way to gain a valuable experience abroad. With a volunteer project you will get professional and personal experience, and improve your career. But an experience abroad will allow you also to learn about another culture and encourage personal development, co-operation, tolerance and open-mindedness.

There are many organisations who will help place you in the perfect work experience job. We will give a list of different organisations throughout this article, focusing on volunteer organisations.

You will find more information on summer jobs, holiday jobs or internship abroad in our other articles on the left column of this page. You will find also details on visa and health insurance in those sections.

What is a volunteer job

Volunteer service is offered by choice - it is not mandated or coerced. It contributes to the well-being of an individual or the community, and is usually coordinated by a non-profit or public sector organization, and in theory it does not pay any salary or wage.

Volunteer work is often equated with unpaid work, and people who contribute their time and energy freely to build a better community don't necessarily get the support systems and recognition they deserve. However regarding people working as volunteer during their summer holiday, they will get accommodation and often a small amount of money for their personal care.

The European Voluntary Service (EVS) The European Voluntary Service (EVS) is a European Union programme, set up by the European Commission in early 1996. It offers young people (between 18 and 25) the opportunity to work as a volunteer for six to twelve months in a non-profit project abroad. Three partners are the key partners of an EVS project: the volunteer, the sending organisation and the host organisation. The European Commission take in charge the travel costs for the young, the insurance (health, accident, public liability) and provides a monthly allowance from 140 to 220 euros. How to proceed: Find a sending organisation that will assist you individually along the procedure (you can find contacts through you National Agency, your National Coordinator or international volunteer organisations). Start contacting potential host organisations through your sending organisation. Keep your fingers crossed and persevere in your search as the difficulty is not to find a suitable project, but to find a project ready to host you within the time limit you have planned. You can have a look at the European database on accredited host organisations and the Youth organisations. More information also on the website http://www.britishcouncil.org

Volunteering in UK

A lot of charities and volunteer organisations exist throughout the United Kingdom, and opportunities depend on what you are looking for.
Many volunteer placements include free accommodation and food but make sure you establish this before beginning work.

World Wide Voluntering (http://www.worldwidevolunteering.org.uk) is a search database with nearly 1000 volunteer organisations, 300,000 placements throughout the UK and in 214 countries worldwide.

do-it.org.uk (http://www.do-it.org.uk) is the official website to volunteer in the UK.

Community Service Volunteers

You can find a lot of different ways of voluntering: employee volunteering, full time volunteering, social work training, professional development, fundraising, volunteer management, volunteering in libraries, young volunteers, ..etc

CSV (http://www.csv.org.uk/) is Britains largest training and volunteering organisation. Full-time volunteers work for a minimum of 4 months, and up to 12 months on various projects around the UK, including conservational and environment programmes.
Accommodation, food, and a small weekly allowance are included on all projects.

Camphill Communities

Camphill Communities run volunteer placements throughout the world. Volunteers work in communities with adults with special needs. Callan Projects (http://callanprojects.camphill.ie) provides a database of links to various Camphill communities around the world
You will be expected to work for 6 days a week and it is usually preferred that you stay for at least one year.

Nobody in Camphill is getting any wages. Each gives the benefit of their work to the community and is supported through the work of others. As a volunteer co-worker you will be given a room of your own, you will have your meals as a member of the household and be supplied with the basic necessities of living.

The National Trust

The National Trust (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk) is responsible for many of Britains heritage sites throughout the UK and require volunteers to help with their running, whether it be working in the houses and offices, or management of the environment. Wetland Rescue, Build a Bat Barn at Devil's Punch Bowl, Woodchester Park Landscape Project, ... a lot of job activities are seeking volunteers.

Ffestiniog Railway

The railway in Wales recruits volunteers to help dealing with the public (customer care, commercial sections, including catering, shop sales...) and operate trains (engineering and maintenance section including loco maintenance, civil engineering...).

Volunteers work unpaid and are expected to find and fund their own accommodation, but for £3 per night you can rent a bed in a local hostel, reduced to £2 per night after twenty nights' stay.

You will find more information, including how to apply, on the Ffestiniog website (http://www.festrail.co.uk).

Edinburgh Cyrenians

As a volunteer with Edinburgh Cyrenian Trust (http://www.cyrenians.org.uk), you work in communities for homeless young people, helping with activities for residents and carrying out domestic tasks. The volunteer will offer innovative, practical and effective help to promote social inclusion.

Volunteering Opportunities include health improvement service (drive vans, deliver and sort food), residential care service housemates (provide peer support), fundraising (assist with individual, corporate and trust fundraising), farm community (produce organic crops)...

Although volunteers are expected to pay for travel expenses, once on the programme they are provided with food, accommodation and about £30 weekly pocket money.

You will find also thousand of addresses on the internet by typing the words voluntering uk.

Insurance

Wherever you go, it is recommended to subscribe a travel insurance. It will cover any event that might occure when you are abroad. Morever this is mandatory for a lot of work in "exotic" countries.

We have selected below a series of companies to help you in your choice. Of course you might find others on the Internet.

• Coverworks Worldwide Travel Insurance: Coverworks Travel Insurance was established to specialise in providing dependable and affordable cover, for both the backpacker and for the independent traveller.
• Insure & Go: Cheap cover online for gap years & backpacking, skiing, adventure travel, single trips & annual travel.
• Down Under Insurance: Offers travel insurance to residents in the UK, the USA, Australia & New Zealand.
• Go Travel Insurance: This is a leading provider of online travel insurance for UK & Irish residents (backpackers insurance is about £150 for 1 year in Europe).
• Travel Insurance Online: It can cover UK or US residents from £40/year, depending on the garanties requested.

You might also look at our other articles on Summer Jobs and Internship abroad on the left column of this page.