Volunteering is routinely advocated in British policy as a key mechanism for young people to gain employment, but with little evidence of its viability as a strategy. Indeed, the limited research in this area suggests the link is weak and that access to good quality volunteering is differentiated along class lines. This article draws on a mixed methods approach, using survey data from the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Survey and qualitative interviews, to analyse the relationship between youth volunteering and employment. It finds that volunteering is not unequivocally beneficial for employment, particularly if it does not offer career-related experience or is imposed rather than self-initiated. It can even have a negative effect on employment. Furthermore, social class mediates access to volunteering opportunities most likely to convert into employment. We conclude there is little evidence to support policy assumptions that, in the short term, volunteering has a positive relationship to paid employment.

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青年志愿服务作为一种就业策略的效果如何？英国的混合方法研究

在英国的政策中，志愿服务通常被认为是年轻人获得就业的关键机制，但几乎没有证据表明其作为一种战略的可行性。事实上，该领域的有限研究表明这种联系很弱，而且获得优质志愿服务的机会因阶级而异。本文采用混合方法，使用公民教育纵向调查的调查数据和定性访谈，分析青年志愿服务与就业之间的关系。研究发现，志愿服务并非绝对有益于就业，特别是如果它不提供与职业相关的经验，或者是强加的而不是自我发起的。它甚至会对就业产生负面影响。此外，社会阶层调节最有可能转化为就业的志愿服务机会。我们得出的结论是，几乎没有证据支持短期内志愿服务与有偿就业呈正相关的政策假设。