Special projects - Employability Through Volunteering

Project Case Study

Akinpelu Akinwunmi
When asked why he decided to volunteer, Akin said, “I knew it was going to be very difficult to get a paid job unless I had UK experience.” Akin had come to the UK from Nigeria to do his masters degree in Internet Engineering at the University of East London and earn the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineering qualification. He also had over five years experience in Nigeria in providing 2nd/3rd Line Network and Systems support within commercial and public based organisations.

Despite this impressive background, Akin was advised that his CV would have to include UK experience. Work with UK voluntary organisations would be a viable way to go. Akin contacted Reach, the charity that places volunteers with professional and managerial backgrounds within voluntary organisations that urgently need their experience and expertise.

The Tottenham Green Enterprise Centre in London, which provides business support and training to people from disadvantaged backgrounds, did urgently need his expertise. Although it had an IT infrastructure, it needed an IT network consultant to review the existing infrastructure and make recommendations for improvement. The charity very much needed hands on technical skill, too, in setting up and connecting the IT equipment.

As the project neared completion, Akin heard that Reach itself was looking for IT support at its London headquarters, upgrading systems, checking the interoperability of the network, building new systems and providing training to Reach users. Akin says that Reach helped to broaden his experience. He mastered programmes he had not been familiar with in Nigeria and he was exposed to an open office plan, a quite different way of working than at home where he had had his own office.

Of the benefits to Reach, Charles Finch, IT Director says, “If we had to get someone with comparable technical skills we would have to pay a lot of money either to hire paid staff or pay a contractor.” Charities just don’t have that sort of money. While at Reach Akin began his search for paid employment. Reach offered him the office facilities to use in his search and mentoring in job search strategy. On the recommendation of a friend, he was referred to a job at Orange, the communications company, as a Network Diagnostic Engineer. When asking for a reference Orange was interested not only in his technical skills, but his soft skills—can he interact with users? Is he reliable? Can he prioritise?

“He’s a highly skilled guy,” says Charles Finch ”and he has the interpersonal skills as well."

Akin has recently been granted a migrant programme visa for the highly skilled; a valuable qualification for continued employment in the UK.

Deutsche Bank has provided funding support to Reach for a programme to help refugees, asylum seekers and migrants across London who may be seeking to use their career skills in the voluntary sector as an eventual route into full-time paid employment.