Learning · Guide
Gain real experience
Once you’ve practised a skill, the next step is using it for a real organisation. These are places to look, and the honest way to describe what you did.
This is a guide to other organisations’ platforms. VCJ doesn’t list volunteer roles, and we don’t take payment from anyone named here.
What counts as experience
Experience is work that a real organisation received and used. A course, a certificate or a practice project is not experience, however good it is.
- Experience: a contribution a project accepted, or a task you delivered to an organisation that used it.
- Practice: simulations, challenges and exercises. Useful, but not work for anyone.
- How to describe it: say what it was. Use titles like “Volunteer data analyst, [organisation]” or “Open-source contributor to [project]”, and never imply it was paid employment.
Open-source contribution
Many open-source projects label beginner-friendly tasks. A contribution that a project accepts is public work that other people reviewed.
GitHub Docs: Finding ways to contribute to open source
Explains how to find projects that use the “good first issue” and “help wanted” labels for first-time contributors.
Who can take part: Open to anyone with a GitHub account.
Checked
Open on docs.github.com (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)
Structured online volunteering
Short, defined tasks for organisations, done online.
UN Volunteers: online volunteering assignments
Assignments are task-based and no longer than 12 weeks. Organisations may not ask online volunteers to donate or to raise funds from others.
Who can take part: Check eligibility from your country before you apply. We could not confirm it on the provider's page.
Checked
Open on explore.unv.org (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)
Skills-based volunteering
Volunteer platforms where you use a specific skill, such as language or data, for social-impact work.
Translators without Borders
A volunteer community for language work.
Who can take part: Check eligibility from your country before you apply. We could not confirm it on the provider's page.
Checked
Open on translatorswithoutborders.org (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)DataKind
Volunteers apply data skills to social-impact projects, and many opportunities are remote. It is aimed at people who already work with data.
Who can take part: DataKind says volunteers may be located anywhere in the world.
Checked
Open on datakind.org (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)Statistics Without Borders
Provides pro bono statistical, data science and analytical services through volunteers.
Who can take part: Check eligibility from your country before you apply. We could not confirm it on the provider's page.
Checked
Open on statisticswithoutborders.org (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)
Paid open-source programmes
These pay participants. Look for current internships in VCJ Internships.
Outreachy
A paid, remote internship programme in open source. Internships last three months, running May to August or December to March.
Who can take part: Check eligibility from your country before you apply. We could not confirm it on the provider's page.
Checked
Open on outreachy.org (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)Google Summer of Code
A global, online programme where contributors work on an open-source project for 12 weeks or more with mentors, and receive a stipend. Contributors are independent developers, not Google employees.
Who can take part: Google's FAQ says contributors must be students or open-source beginners, and eligible to work in their country of residence.
Checked
Open on summerofcode.withgoogle.com (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)
Community projects
A real organisation you already know, such as a school, a religious community or a small business, may need something you can do. Agree the task in writing, deliver it, and ask whether they used it. Describe it exactly as it happened.
Challenges and simulations: practice, not experience
Useful for building skill and confidence. They are not work experience, because no organisation received or used the work.
Forage
Free, self-paced job simulations with tasks designed by employers.
Who can take part: Forage says its simulations are open access.
Checked
Open on theforage.com (opens the provider’s site in a new tab)
Stay safe
- Never pay to volunteer, or pay for a certificate to “unlock” a role.
- Never deposit money or buy anything to receive tasks or payments.
- Be wary of a for-profit company asking for unpaid “volunteers” to do ordinary paid work.
- Check the organisation on its own official website before you share personal details.