Volunteering
Some volunteering organisations require that the volunteer pay for placement, especially when it is offered as a "gap year" option (that is, several months work experience between school and college).
Volunteering is big business but there is growing criticism of the way in which it works. Whilst there are undoubtedly very good organisations arranging volunteering overseas, there are also some very poorly run companies arranging problematic volunteering positions. Sometimes volunteering is offered as an option for students wanting to take a gap year but there are often inherent risks in this which are explored below.
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Why Volunteer?
Volunteering is good for several reasons.
- Helping others. Teaching English to students who would not normally have the opportunity to learn is good to do.
- It helps you get experience before going into a professional job.
- It looks good on your Resume/CV. If you send your details out for a paid, full-time job then it always looks good to have some volunteering work included there in your holiday break from college.
Where to Volunteer
The best place to volunteer is those places where the need is greatest.
This can be as simple as a local community centre where recent immigrants to your country need survival English in order to get around and begin to work in the country.
There are also good volunteering jobs with organsiations like the Peace Corps in the US or the VSO in the UK. You can be sure that these jobs are legitimate and you have the backup of a professional organisation should something go wrong. See Volunteer Organisations for more.
And finally there’s the possibility to contact a school or charity directly in a place in dire need of teachers and arrange something directly, thus cutting out the middlemen.
Where NOT to Volunteer
Volunteering is not advisable in countries and schools where it is not really needed. Some commercial organisations agree to supply a volunteer to a school which, under normal circumstances, would employ a paid, regular teacher.
- The volunteer organisation gets paid both by the school and the volunteer who pays for their placement.
- The school pays a small amount to the volunteer organisation but gets a cheap teacher to work for them at far less cost than a professional teacher.
These positions can cost the volunteer upward of 1,000 dollars and often the volunteer organisation will insist the volunteer take a TEFL course from them, thus making more money out of the situation.
The people who end up paying for this are the volunteer who is working on the cheap and the students who are paying for a professional teacher but who will receive, in all likelihood, an untrained newcomer.
With some commerical organisations there is the problem of support as well. Unlike larger NGOs they are not equipped to deal with major emergencies and problems and they do not have the infrastructure in place to get their volunteers out of a place in an emergency.
Qualifications
Given that the usual minimum qualifications for teaching are a degree and a TEFL certificate, these should be the minimum requirements for volunteering also. Sometimes these will be waived, however, if the need is there.
Certainly, however, we would suggest at least some TEFL training is useful if not essential.
The Ethics of Volunteering
Whilst volunteering is good in itself, you should be aware of the potential problems it may cause if you are in a school like the one mentioned above.
Essentially you will taking the place of a trained teacher. In the long run this devalues the profession and this teaching on the cheap does no good to the school, the students or the profession as a whole.
External Links
NY Times - article on the Peace Corps volunteer standards
Abroad Reviews - reviews of various volunteer and travel programs
