For example, some volunteer coaches are quite often newly graduated (or close to graduating) or trainee coaches undertaking a coaching degree at Bachelor’s or Master’s level, looking to build up their coaching portfolio.
A volunteer coaching role will help to give them the much-needed experience required for getting a paid coaching role.
Sometimes, you may find that volunteer coaches consist of people who are pre-college or pre-graduation, perhaps undertaking a coaching degree or something similar who need to complete some voluntary coaching as part of their course or to use towards their college credits.
Sometimes, a volunteer coach may simply be someone, a student or not, who is looking for some experience for their future college course or dream career.
For these people for whom volunteer coaching is a means of helping them further their education or career, the purpose of volunteering is to improve and build upon their skills, as well as seeing whether they enjoy the career path that they have in mind.
It may allow them to test out various coaching styles, which will be more easily done if they also work with a qualified coach.
Indeed, some volunteer coaches may just be people from within the community who just have a passion for that particular sport.
They do not need the experience and skills that volunteer coaching can give as they may not be studying for any particular course or degree.
For example, junior sports teams aimed at children may often have parents lending a hand with coaching. They may not necessarily have a sports coaching degree but may have an understanding and passion for the sport in question.
Do volunteer coaches get paid?
No. Sadly, volunteer coaches do not typically get paid.
The reason for this is that they often volunteer on the basis that they are getting something else out of it such as experience, college credits, or just some extra skills to add to their CV and portfolio.
Oftentimes, there are stipulations in place that say that they cannot get paid.
For example, if they are on a scholarship program through a college or university specializing in sports coaching, they may be required to undertake a certain level of unpaid voluntary work to get credits and the relevant experience needed to pass the course.
With this in mind, they would not be allowed to receive any form of payment from the institution at which they are volunteering. That being said, this does not mean they will be forced to provide labor for free.
They may well get money directly from their chosen college through a bursary or another form of payment to allow them to afford to live whilst studying and volunteering.
As well as this, it is worth bearing in mind that volunteering as a coach is not likely to take up as much time as a full-time job might take up. At most, it will be akin to a part-time job.
As such, it may be possible that a student can also work on weeknights or weekends alongside their coaching study.
This is to say that any prospective coaching students who are looking to undertake some voluntary coaching experience should not be put off by the fact that they won’t get paid for it.
It is an excellent opportunity that is worth its weight in gold in terms of the experience you gain for your future career.
Do volunteer assistant coaches get paid?
No, volunteer assistant coaches are not likely to be paid. They are even more unlikely than volunteer coaches to get paid.
Typically speaking, since a volunteer coach is not allowed to accept a payment from an institution, the same room will also be applied to volunteer assistant coaches.
Now, we are sure that there may well be cases where volunteer assistant coaches do get paid, as you may know from the previous section on volunteer coaches.
The reason for this may be because some institutions may have different rules and regulations.
However, the fact is that a volunteer assistant coach is just that – a volunteer. In its very definition, a volunteer is someone who works without expecting payment in any way.
As well as this, the same applies to volunteer assistant coaches as it does for volunteer coaches.
They may not get paid in a monetary form, but they are gaining something from the experience of coaching such as college credits, work experience, and something extra to put down on their career portfolio or CV.
They may also be receiving a scholarship or funding in some form from a college or university and may need to undertake some voluntary coaching as a stipulation of the funding.
