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  • Essay / Volunteering: personal experience and benefits

    Volunteering rewards internally and externally. Intrinsic rewards in the form of direct activity and/or work output while extrinsic activity contributes to improving human capital, social network or gaining social approval. It provides internal and external motivations. Internally, volunteers benefit from an intrinsic pleasure in the work and care about the usefulness of the beneficiary while helping others gives them satisfaction. Externally, it helps with social networking and understanding working with a higher age range. As part of my action in favor of society, I joined the NGO “AgeAction” to provide digital skills to elderly people. This program is funded by the Irish Government's Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. The government's national digital strategy aims to improve citizens' digital skills through free training sessions provided by NGOs. For AgeAction, the age of an adult for this program is above 55 years and is open to all segments like farming communities, small business owners, unemployed people, people with disabilities and disadvantaged groups. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Volunteering is beneficial in the same way that “market work” is beneficial because it is an alternative but unpaid way of producing something for other consumers. Training seniors in internet skills has rewarded me with informal learning outside of the classroom. Helping people from disadvantaged backgrounds, in terms of age, and more prone to social isolation, has reinforced the importance of communication, whatever the social or professional environment. I have always believed in lifelong learning but managing this belief in the real scenario of Masters program seemed to be a challenge with extensive reading/writing work and that too after 10 years of coming out of formal education. Learner agility proved beneficial and encouraged me to learn new things with interest and avoid burnout. Learning something meaningful at any age is no longer a dilemma but an ongoing activity with a renewed perspective. The benefits of volunteer experiences rely on the prior learning and abilities that each volunteer shares with an organization. Besides meeting people from different backgrounds, my first training course at AgeAction helped me rebuild my perspective on the do's and don'ts during volunteering courses and taught me how to manage expectations older people in terms of learning content. In recent years, successful businesses have integrated soft skills such as interpersonal communication, team building, listening, integrity, and more. in the general requirements, because they are essential to the success of the company. Building a social network for career preparation is one of the goals. Sharing my knowledge during the course complemented my experience by improving my self-confidence, my ability to participate in face-to-face as well as group discussions and improving my language skills. From my previous experience in the industry, all of these traits of informal education are among the top skills that any employer looks for. The realization of effective management of people and their expectations from diverse backgrounds was a surprise to me. Additionally, the thought process