The Australian Volunteers Program remains committed to supporting our valued partner organisations overseas. If you have professional skills and knowledge to share, are open to new experiences, and have time to contribute, then you're likely to be an effective Australian volunteer.
Applications are encouraged from across the breadth of the Australian population. Australian volunteers come from diverse backgrounds, from the smallest towns to large cities, from young people to older people about to retire.
The Australian Volunteers Program supports inclusiveness, including to people with a disability.
Being an Australian volunteer might be one of the toughest jobs you will have, but it will also be one of the most rewarding.
By being involved with the Australian Government's development program, you have the opportunity to use your knowledge, skills, compassion and humanity to make a difference to people's lives.
You will help organisations overseas build their skills and expertise so that they are better equipped to achieve their goals. You will form enduring friendships with people in the Indo-Pacific region and develop a deeper understanding of how to work across cultures. Volunteering can be a mutual learning experience that can be personally and professionally life changing.
Australians who have volunteered often talk about their unique personal and professional experiences they gained with the most common rewards and highlights being:
- personal satisfaction with making a contribution to the Australia's development program
- forming friendships across cultures
- developing skills in adaptability, resilience and leadership from working with limited resources and in different contexts
- widening their skill set beyond a specific profession or specialisation.
All volunteer assignments are advertised on the Australian Volunteers Program website with detailed descriptions of the specific skills and experience required. The skills and expertise required to meet the needs of all our partner organisations are diverse. In-country, remote and hybrid assignments are advertised.
Before applying, you can learn more about the Australian Volunteers Program by:
- attending an information and recruitment session or webinar
- hearing from current and past volunteers through their stories
- contacting AVI
- subscribing to the Australian Volunteers Program e-newsletter.
The Australian Volunteers program operates across 25 countries in the Indo-Pacific.