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VOLUNTEERING AND UNPAID WORK PLACEMENTS AMONG CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN NSW

			COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
  

				CHAIR'S FOREWORD

There is no question about the value that volunteering provides, both to communities and to 
the people who volunteer. Volunteering builds the social capital and wellbeing of society, and 
provides volunteers with opportunities to contribute to their communities, gain skills and 
experience, and build networks. 

Given the clear benefits of volunteering, it is particularly important to encourage young people 
to volunteer. We need to get young people involved in volunteering activities and foster a 
long-term commitment to volunteering that extends into adulthood. We need to do all we can 
to support young people in taking up volunteering opportunities, and in doing so we must 
ensure that all young people from across our community are not excluded from participating. 

In this, the Committee on Children and Young People’s fourth report of the 55th Parliament, 
the Committee has made a series of considered recommendations that are aimed at 
encouraging young people to participate in volunteering activities and providing the necessary 
support to ensure that young people and volunteer organisations gain the many benefits that 
volunteering provides. 

The Committee has recommended that actions be taken to increase young peoples’ awareness 
of the volunteering opportunities that are available to them and to recognise young peoples’ 
volunteering efforts. The Committee has also recommended that consideration be given to a 
scheme that assists young people with meeting the costs of participating in volunteering 
activities, and that guidance be provided to young people and organisations to promote best 
practice in the conducting of volunteering activities. Finally, the Committee has recommended 
that the Minister for Citizenship and Communities work towards formal, State-level 
recognition of volunteering activities, as this was found to be a key driver in encouraging 
young people to volunteer. 

Like volunteering, unpaid work has the potential to provide young people with valuable skills 
and work experience in a formal work environment. During the course of the inquiry, the 
Committee found that young people were undertaking unpaid work in increasing numbers, 
and it was concerned to learn that there was a lack of clear guidelines about what constitutes 
legitimate and lawful unpaid work. 

It was the Committee’s unanimous view that unpaid work should primarily benefit the person 
undertaking the placement and that young peoples’ rights should be protected when 
undertaking unpaid work. To this effect, the Committee has made a series of 
recommendations that are aimed at ensuring that unpaid work opportunities for young people 
are both beneficial and safe. Included in the Committee’s recommendations are the 
development of a code of practice and a complementary best practice guide for internships 
and other forms of unpaid work, as well as measures to educate young people about their 
rights in the workplace. 

It should be noted, that while the Committee has directed its recommendations to the 
Commission for Children and Young People, in line with the Committee’s establishing terms of 
reference, the recommendations will apply equally to the Office of the Advocate for Children 
and Young People once that agency has been established to replace the Commission. 

I would like to thank my fellow Committee members for their invaluable input and hard work 
in conducting the inquiry and preparing the final report. I would also like to thank Committee 
staff for their support and assistance throughout the inquiry process. 
 

Mark Coure MP 
Chair 



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