I'm doing an Open University course in sociology and I am interested in working with asylum seekers. I obtained BBC grades at A-Level. Any suggestions?


Esme Peach, communications officer, Refugee Action answers:

In the voluntary sector experience will always trump general qualifications, so it really doesn't matter what you got at A-Level or what you studied at university, what's more important - especially if you want to do case work with refugees and asylum seekers directly - is that you have experience working with asylum seekers or organisations who work with other disadvantaged groups such as homeless people.

One of the things that people make the mistake of is saying that they "just want to work in this sector" rather than thinking exactly what it is they want to do. It's really important to identify whether you want to work directly with asylum seekers or work as a press officer or in fundraising, campaigning or policy. If you want to be a press officer you need experience of working in the media; if you want to work in communications then experience in the public sector or private sector doing PR is really useful; those interested in campaigning tend to have quite a strong background in student politics; and in policy, academic qualifications matter more.

Think about small organisations versus large organisations and what kind of experience each one will offer you. At a smaller organisation you will get to see how an organisation works organically. You might find yourself ordering stationery one day and writing a response to a government paper the next day.