THE NUMBER of newly-unemployed, highly-skilled people volunteering has increased to the point where the sector is unable to accommodate all who want to offer their skills for free, the State body co-ordinating volunteering has said.
Volunteering Centres Ireland (VCI) has seen a 118 per cent increase in people registering to volunteer in the first eight months of this year compared with the same period last year.
A significant proportion of this was attributable to the rise in unemployment, said chief executive Dr Yvonne McKenna.
VCI is the central body through which people interested in volunteering register and then, at a local centre, staff will work to match their skills with suitable positions.
This year over 2,500 people have been placed generating almost 250,000 hours of volunteering so far this year.
Among the skills people are offering are in marketing, finance, architecture, legal expertise, building, administration, IT and in training others. Young people with a good level of education felt they had a lot to give and the image of volunteering had changed.
“As people lose confidence in the public and private sector jobs markets there has been a huge turning to the voluntary sector as an area where they can rely on being able to stay and build on the contribution they can make.
She said volunteering was no longer seen as a purely “giving” activity. “People want to get something out of it as well,” said Dr McKenna. One of the main things people lose, apart from income, was a sense of purpose and identity.
“The reality is though there is a mismatch between supply and demand. There are huge numbers of people volunteering and the needs or capacity of the voluntary sector cannot always match them exactly.”
The organisations which needed volunteers were not-for-profit and did not always have the capacity or resources to use the skills many of those registering to volunteer wanted to offer.
