Neelam Tandy is a Press officer for the Children's Press Office at BBC Worldwide, having studied English literature at Sheffield University. She attributes her success to her volunteering at a local playgroup. 'I mentioned the playgroup on my CV and I talked about it in interviews as it was my only experience of working directly with children. By volunteering I learnt how children function, how they think and what they like. This was all valuable training for when I needed to talk to journalists or write press releases about child development.'

Matt Bush works for FPD Savills as a Property Researcher. As a student at Newcastle he volunteered on the student telephone help line. 'I knew that one of the reasons I had got my job interview was because I had something on my CV that set me out from the crowd'. Having volunteered, Matt found 'I could demonstrate I had a greater level of confidence borne of the experience of working in a team and being part of the organisational and decision making process'