The impact of volunteering on skill development

In my role as Senior Education and Operations Manager at Sport Structures (Amy Bryant), most people would assume that I have a sport-based educational background. In fact, I have a degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences, several worlds away from sport!

So, how did I end up working in the sports sector? Obviously, completing a degree will give an individual plenty of transferrable skills that can be used in a multitude of settings. However, I have always been motivated by self-development and learning new things and so I have always taken on opportunities that would keep me challenged and provide learning and development. This is where volunteering and my path to becoming employed in the sports sector comes in.

After my degree, I started coaching artistic swimming as a volunteer which then turned into a Head Coach role, in addition to becoming a judge. During this time, as well as developing my club, I took on additional volunteering responsibilities as the Regional Manager for, what was then, synchronised swimming. There was no regional activity when I started in the role, so over several years, I used my organisational, planning and project management skills to put in place competitions, development opportunities for athletes, officials training and grading days. This required building relationships with clubs in the region and any other volunteers outside the region who could support them, as well as Swim England staff.  It also required putting together and presenting an annual budget to the regional board and subsequent budget management.

This one voluntary role gave me an opportunity to work on developing a wide range of transferrable skills and led to a paid role in sport as a Regional Development Officer for Swim England East Region. This allowed me to work with all aquatic sports and allowed me to further develop my skill set by applying it on a larger scale. This was the starting point for how I ended up in my current role at Sport Structures.

My club coaching hours for artistic swimming are now paid rather than voluntary but I still do a lot for that role as a volunteer, including administration, budgeting for my squad, planning, choreography attending competitions and grading days as a judge/coach. I am also a voluntary member of the Swim England Sport Operations Committee which provides another great opportunity to utilise and further develop my skillset.

I have met plenty of individuals who don’t understand why people would volunteer. Whilst there are some roles where you should absolutely put a value on your skill set, I would encourage people of all ages and levels of experience to volunteer, particularly in sport. Not only will you learn new things and develop yourself, but you will also make a difference in your role that will benefit many others, which in turn supports their development. Sport just wouldn’t happen without the thousands of dedicated volunteers around the country and even though they don’t do it for recognition and praise, a ‘thank you’ goes a long way to show their efforts are appreciated and will put a smile on their face.