Personal Experiences

Elaine was a legal secretary before having children. Now with her young children starting school she has time on her hands and would like to return to employment, but having been out of the workplace for some eight years the prospect is somewhat daunting. Moreover, she feels unable to commit to the usual nine to five job as it would be likely to mean leaving home in the mornings before the children leave for school and returning later than them at night - and then there is the tea to make!

"I rang up the Volunteer Centre and they put me in touch with the local secondary school to see if there was anything there I could do. The daytime hours would suit and, of course, I would be at home during the long school holidays."

"At first, they offered me the usual class room support -hearing children read, helping with sums, even mounting art work - but none of these matched my skills - nor were they likely to benefit me if and when I wanted to apply for a paid job. Eventually, they offered me administrative work in the school office, linked with various departments in the school updating and retyping work sheets etc."

"The other secretarial staff were very friendly and helpful, especially as they taught me the use of new computer programmes that had changed or been updated since I last worked on them."

"The atmosphere in a school is a bit hectic and there are lots of interruptions but it is always young and lively with lots of different things to do. In fact it has really turned out well for me - I now have a part time paid job there!"

Darren had just finished his first year sixth at school when there was a Sixth Form Enrichment Week. After a conversation with the staff at the Volunteer Centre, the Head of Sixth Form arranged an activity with the local branch of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers.

"It was to build a bridge over a stream! It was mega. We all thought this would be a great laugh - better than A level German any way!

"When we arrived at the place, Alex was there. We hadn't realised that they had done a lot of work already, measuring up etc., and there were all the bits there already - the wood cut to size, the hand tools etc. It was a smashing day, hot and sunny and really good to be out in countryside.

"It was hard work mind: we had to dig big holes and cut down the grass with scythes but all the bits of the bridge just slotted in like a kit! At the end of the day, the bridge was just about up and we were knackered. But we had had a good time and I got to know some people that I had had nothing to do with before really well."

"Back in the common room at school, we often talk about it together -"remember when Julie fell in the brook!" BTCV do other things too on a weekend during the summer and autumn and I go on those quite often. I have leant how to hedge lay and build dry stone walls -but its not so much what I have learnt; it's the new people I have met from all sorts of places and different jobs and backgrounds."