A paper from the HEA Annual Conference 2009.
Learning gained through work experience volunteer work and extracurricular activities could have considerable impact on undergraduate students' personal development increasing their levels of confidence and helping them develop their professional careers (Ball 2003; Drury 2007). Indeed creative arts students describe their own work-related activities that are oriented towards cultural social and not-for-profit activities as “entrepreneur-like” in that “they demand similar skills and attributes to those needed when working in commercial sectors” (ADM-NESTA 2007). Yet there is little empirical evidence of learning derived from work-related activity located in the public volunteering and not-for-profit sectors the benefits to students and challenges involved.
