Every year MyBigCareer supports hundreds of young people aged 11-18 from the most disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to take their first steps on the path to employment, training or further education.
It’s our amazing team of volunteer Career Coaches, giving us their time and skills, who enable the charity to keep providing this life-changing support free of charge to the young people who need us most.
Meet some of our dedicated Career Coaches here.
Career Coaches
Our Career Coaches work directly with young people in 1:1 sessions – advising, encouraging and creating crucial moments of inspiration that can be the turning point in raising a young person’s aspirations.
Whether remotely or in-person, the role of Career Coach focusses on supporting the different needs each young person may have.
Taking time to understand what barriers might be holding them back
Showing compassion and empathy, recognising unique potential
Goal setting and creating momentum towards achieving those goals
Giving advice and practical help in preparing for interviews
Sharing experiences and professional insights of specific industries
Helping to build confidence through CV and application writing
If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a great Career Coach we’d love to hear from you.
This is not a long-term ‘mentoring’ programme. Although MyBigCareer will continue to work with the school and students, as a volunteer it is likely that you will only meet the young person on one occasion. These sessions take place during the school day.
Other support
At MyBigCareer there are always additional opportunities for our volunteers to get involved in additional programmes or supporting a young person in a specific area. These include speaking at an Access Day themed around the industry you work in or offering bespoke advice to a young person pursuing a career in the area you work in. These opportunities are optional but also very rewarding so once you’ve registered as a volunteer please let us know if you’d like to be involved.
Our expectations
We ask all our volunteers to demonstrate passion, positivity and commitment to improving social mobility for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Once we approve an application and welcome volunteers on board we expect everyone to adhere to our code of conduct and have an Enhanced DBS check (where applicable). In order to be eligible to volunteer with MyBigCareer and get an accurate Enhanced DBS check, you must have been living in England or Wales for the last 5 years.
We ask our volunteers to be contactable, flexible and open to requests to get involved, but we completely appreciate that free time and availability might be limited. We normally ask our volunteers to give a minimum of 2 hours of their time on 4 or 5 occasions per year.
Induction & training
We strongly believe that volunteering to support young people isn’t something that should be taken lightly or without adequate preparation and training.
We provide a full induction and training programme for all our new volunteers. It’s very important that anyone volunteering for MyBigCareer is suitably equipped and confident to represent the charity professionally and to support young people safely and effectively.
With this in mind, every volunteer attends a minimum of 3 hours training, with an ongoing programme of support from our team to ensure they’re able to give the best possible quality of career coaching to the young people we support.
Our values & volunteering
At MyBigCareer our values underpin everything that we do; whether it’s our interactions with young people, or our conversations with new business partners. Whilst at times it can be difficult, we want our trustees, staff team and volunteers to consider and embody these values as best they can. Click here to view our ‘MyBigCareer Values’ page.