Why are volunteers so important to Citizens Advice Edinburgh?

Over 90% of Citizens Advice Edinburgh workers are trained volunteers. Our volunteers are the mainstay of our charity. In 2010/11 volunteers contributed 72,000 hours of service to bureaux in Edinburgh. (The cost for wages alone if all volunteers were paid an average wage would be over £900,000!)

Volunteers are recruited from all age groups, backgrounds and communities. Many people have found that their training and experience with Citizens Advice Edinburgh has been instrumental in finding paid employment or changing career. In 2010/11 56 new volunteer advisers were recruited and trained at CAE. During the same period 17 volunteers moved into paid employment – directly assisted by the training and experience provided by CAE. 3 volunteers moved into further education.

As well as advising clients, volunteers support many other areas of our charity including our IT services, reception and administrative functions, social polciy and information, HR and finance functions  and repairs, maintenance and gardening!

What kind of work do volunteers do?

Many people help us as:

  • advice volunteers (please click for more information on the advice role and how to apply)
  • administration volunteers
  • social policy volunteer
  • information team volunteers
  • reception volunteers

Volunteers can also help with specific CAE projects such as:

  • IT and computer maintenance
  • fund-raising events
  • production of fund-raising materials
  • research

What can we offer you?

  • The satisfaction of assisting individuals with their difficulties
  • A chance to help your local community and meet new people
  • An opportunity to learn new skills and develop existing ones
  • Improved prospects for employment
  • A supported, friendly environment with regular social events

Non-advisory roles

Recruitment of volunteers for non-advisory roles is carried out as and when a need at CAE is identified.  Adverts with information on the necessary skills, attitude and time required to carry out the role are placed on this page of our website and with the Volunteer Centre Edinburgh (www.volunteeredinburgh.org.uk).

Please note that we are not currently recruiting for volunteer advisers or other roles but will advertise future opportunities for advisory and non-advisory roles on this site.

To view any non-advisory volunteer opportunities please click here.