A market to sell experience: how neoliberal volunteering policies trade on the pressures of being young

Whether volunteers should be motivated to give their time for altruistic or instrumental reasons is a continuing issue. This article presents evidence from a qualitative study exploring how the behaviours of youth volunteering recruiters are affected as a result of young people's motivations. It is shown that these brokerage workers feel that educational institutions, central government, and other social structures pressure young people to be increasingly instrumental in their volunteering. Recruiters do not challenge these instrumental motivations; instead, employability and easing the transition to work form a large part of 'selling' volunteering, as young people trade time for experience. It is concluded that these findings fit into a wider theoretical narrative about the individualisation of society, and that the marketised nature of giving one's time will increasingly create problems for voluntary organisations and communities.