Volunteer: Rene Dipnarine
Age: 18
From: Edinburgh
Placement: Workshop volunteer – the Bike Station
“Since I left school, I hadn’t been doing very much except hanging round the house annoying my parents. ProjectScotland gave me the jump start I needed to get out there and get energised again.”
Rene became a ProjectScotland volunteer in January 2009. He had finished 6th year at school in July 2008 and had been living at home not really sure what to do with his life next. For Rene, his ProjectScotland placement at the Bike Station helped him out of a rut.
His dad suggested he do some volunteering. Rene started looking into different volunteering opportunities. He had volunteered before through his school, but ProjectScotland offered him something different. ProjectScotland let him volunteer full time with a local organisation and it offered £55 per week subsistence.
ProjectScotland matched Rene up with the Bike Station in Causewayside. Although Rene intends to follow a career in IT, the Bike Shop placement was the perfect for him. The hands on nature of the placement gave him something completely different to focus on and gave him a set of new skills.
During his placement, Rene helped strip down bikes and fix them up. He also helped to keep the warehouse in order. One of the biggest challenges for Rene was helping out “front of house” selling newly reconditioned bikes to customers. As his knowledge grew he was much surer of himself when speaking to customers and this helped build his confidence and communications skills.
After being at home for 6 months not doing very much, it was difficult for Rene to get back into the habit of turning up for his placement on time. While his punctuality isn’t 100% perfect now, his placement has definitely helped him to manage his time better.
The project Rene was most proud of on his placement was helping to rebuild the shop front, which involved setting up scaffolding, carpentry and painting among other things. He had a great sense of satisfaction when it was all finished, knowing that he had helped with that transformation.
With the help of West Edinburgh Action, Rene has put together a CV and applied to do an HNC in Computing at Stevenson College starting this September and he intends to go on to get a job in IT. However, he will not forget the range of skills he picked up at the Bike Station on his ProjectScotland placement. He has made new friends and gained confidence. He has also picked up some great training and practical experience that will stand him in good stead for the rest of his life. Rene enjoyed his placement so much that he intends to continue volunteering at the Bike Station one day a week over the summer.
“Volunteering full time with ProjectScotland is definitely the best way to get the most out of your placement. This experience is really going to help my CV. If I hadn’t decided to do volunteering, the year between finishing school and going to college would probably have been a total waste of my time.”