On January 12, Ana Beatie, 25, was working behind her desk in the placid world of local government. The very next day she was planning her deployment to the urban nightmare of Haiti.  

The Kingston Council employee and former KU student, is a volunteer for S.A.R.A.I.D (Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters), an organisation that specialises in finding people and bodies in urban disaster areas. By the time she landed at Port-au-Prince airport it was becoming apparent that the earthquake that had struck the Caribbean island was one of the worst disasters in modern history.

Miss Beatie said: “When we arrived the amount of destruction was huge, every other building was either structurally damaged or completely flattened. You soon became very aware that these are people homes and livelihoods”.

She trained for two years on the S.A.R.A.I.D volunteer course, sacrificing a weekend every month to learn various skills. During that time she trained to use specialist cutting equipment such as chainsaws and disc-cutters, stretcher work and most importantly, how to work as a team.

Miss Beatie said: “We work in a chain, watching each other’s backs and ensuring everyone is working as quickly and effectively with the minimum of fuss.”

It is this sort of volunteering spirit that the main UK political parties would like to see replicated more often in local communities. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has long been proposing volunteering as one of the main cures to Britain’s ‘broken society’. In a speech in 2008 he said: “It is the voluntary sector that will provide many of the solutions to tomorrow’s problems.”

Last month David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, jumped on the volunteering bandwagon and cited the recent increase in volunteering as evidence that society is not as broken as the Tories would have the electorate believe.

The latest national figures produced by Volunteering England showed that in the first quarter of 2010, 43 per cent of UK citizens participated in a level of formal volunteering. Volunteering seems to be popular amongst the young with 44 per cent of 16-25 year olds have volunteered either formally for an organisation or informally in on an ad hoc basis.

Last month, Kingston University marked National Volunteering Week by running a number of events to encourage student volunteering. Martin Crosby, Volunteer Co-ordinator for Kingston University Students’ Union, said: “It’s been fantastic. We’ve had scores of volunteers help with a range of different projects. From students knitting baby hats to visiting St. John Ambulance the enthusiasm of our students for getting involved and helping has been jaw dropping”. 

“What’s been particularly gratifying is that we’ve had a big influx of people who have never volunteered before”.

The benefits of volunteering are not only altruistic. Figures released in November revealed that graduate unemployment had risen by 44 per cent in the last year this was a 12 year high. Experts suggest volunteering experience on a graduates CV could make the difference between unemployment and a dream job.

Shamim Ashraf, former recruitment consultant for the Actuarial Recruitment Company, stresses the importance of volunteering for graduates wanting to stand out from the crowd.

Mr Ashraf said:  “More than anything, volunteer work makes an individual interact with people they may not previously be used to at university or home and that diversity is what usually comes through at the interview stage.

“Having the prior experience allows an individual to feel more confident in an interview situation and have more relevant things to talk about. At graduate level, employers presume you've not done much yet in life, so when they come across someone who has it makes a huge difference”.

Jeremy Derroch, the Chief Executive of Sky,  said “To build a successful and rewarding career today, you need a rounded skill set, of which academic, or technical, knowledge is just one part. Volunteering is a great way for students to gain the kind of practical experience and life skills that are highly valued by employers, while positively contributing to great causes.”

Evidence suggests however that career advancement is not the main motivation for most young volunteers. Do-It.org carried out a survey in April 2009 on participants of their volunteering schemes and discovered while 49 per cent of volunteers took part in charitable work to gain work experience, 71 per cent said that their motivation was to help people in need.    

Ana Beatie said: “Helping others in any capacity is selfishly really fulfilling, there is definitely that element to it because it feels really good to help people. You also learn things from experiences and people you would not normally encounter. With luck those you help will get even more from the experience than you did.