For students who are soon to finish their exams and wondering how to boost their CVs, voluntary work abroad is an ideal way to develop skills and gain experiences that will set you apart from other school leavers or graduates. Voluntary work is available in so many different guises that most people are likely to find something suited to their character and aptitudes.

One of the most common types of voluntary work abroad is teaching English, as just by virtue of being British, you are equipped with a skill that is highly in demand throughout the world. In fact, according to the British Council, 300 million people are learning English at the present time. This is likely to be on the increase, given the prominence of English in the medium of international communication, the internet. While speaking English alone can be enough to recommend you for a teaching job abroad, you can maximise your chances of finding the best possible teaching job by doing a ‘Teaching English as a Foreign Language’, or TEFL course. Volunteers who enjoy engaging with people often find this kind of work very rewarding, and teaching experience provides young people with a very useful skill set which can help in the future when looking for a different kind of job. Teaching a language will enable you to talk about a time when you have shown leadership and thought creatively. For those who are considering a career in teaching, obviously this kind of experience will look impressive on a PGCE application.

Teaching abroad is but one of a many types of voluntary work abroad that can be enjoyable and useful at the same time. Animal lovers might want to opt for a volunteering placement which enables them to look after exotic animals abroad, perhaps in a wildlife sanctuary or a farm. Alternatively, physical labour in the form of helping with a construction project can be a very useful way of making a difference in a country where the infrastructure is in need of development.

Aside from these more general types of work, there are a number of wholly original projects that are run every year, and might be best accessed through school or university charity committees. For example, the READ project collects old schoolbooks from the UK, and takes them to schools in countries in the developing world which have a similar syllabus but fewer books to share between the students. Working on an original project such as this, which allows volunteers to influence the project from the beginning to the end, can offer a particularly fulfilling sense of achievement.

It is also worth bearing in mind that, while you will certainly not be paid for doing volunteer work, you might actually have to pay a few thousand pounds for the opportunity to do it. Big gap year organisations which allows you to participate in the types of projects mentioned above may charge you thousands of pounds, but in return, will often deal with all the practicalities of your stay in the country. If you want to avoid paying massive costs, it may be a better idea to set up the volunteer work yourself, although this might obviously be rather difficult if you do not have any links with the country in question.

Choosing your volunteering placement, therefore, is not an easy decision. It is certainly worth consulting all possible opportunities, looking at gap year organization brochures, talking to charity organizations at school or university, making the most of any contacts you have abroad, and searching the internet for possible options. Still, any kind of voluntary work abroad you may end up doing is likely to be highly enjoyable, fulfilling, and useful in the long term both to you and the beneficiaries of your work.