SECURING university places and seeking jobs has become more competitive for today's young people as they venture out into the big world.

Yet volunteering could help them develop valuable skills to give them an edge when preparing their applications or CVs.

Conscious of the competition students face, Bradford Girls Grammar school are ensuring their students are equipped to further their education and, ultimately for the workplace, by launching its first ever volunteering programme.

Elaine Tucker, the school's community liaison and communications director, says: "It is becoming more and more competitive getting into first choice universities and for future employment opportunities.

She says many have high grades and are having to look at other ways of marketing themselves and volunteering can be one such way.

Working in collaboration with the independent charity, Vinspired, which helps young people to volunteer in ways which matter to them, and Bradford Community Voluntary Services, Sixth Form students will be expected to undertake one hour of volunteering a week for the first two terms within school, the local community, charities, organisations, local hospital or even community policing.

As well as assisting students in pursuing their studies and seeking a profession, Elaine says volunteering equips them with important skills such as personal development and social skills. It also helps with confidence building and self-esteem.

"It is looking at how we can help our students to be better prepared for the outside world, not just about getting the grades. It is about preparing students for life," says Elaine.

Volunteering is already bouyant in Bradford. 'The Place' a Government survey carried out in 2009 found more people volunteer in Bradford than anywhere else in Yorkshire. Twenty per cent of the adult population in Bradford volunteer regularly.

Bradford Volunteering Centre currently work with 8,000 people every year, many of whom have transformed their lives through volunteering.

Dave Forrest, director of Bradford's Volunteer Centre, explained they ran a project with the Job Centre working with 800 unemployed people. "Of those 800, 20 per cent found work as a direct result of volunteering so it was a really positive scheme," says Dave.

He says even more interesting was of those who found a job, they continued to volunteer on average for four hours per week.

Dave explains volunteering can equip people with vocational skills and they can also undertake qualifications. Some charity shop workers have the opportunity to take NVQs in retail.

The 43-year-old speaks about the benefits of volunteering from experience. A yearning to follow his dream to work in radio led Dave into volunteering.

He joined Bradford's BCB community radio in 2009. "I do the breakfast show on Wednesday and I got involved because it was one of my childhood dreams to do radio," explains Dave.

As well as fulfilling an ambition, Dave says he has also learned new skills - producing a radio programme and interviewing people he would never had had the opportunity to meet.

"I've learnt all sorts of different skills, met all sorts of different people and really enjoying doing it."

According to a new report, volunteering has now returned to a 10 year high with the young most likely to volunteer and the number of men volunteering now surpassing women.

'The New Alchemy' - a report from research consultancy nfpSynergy, found 27 per cent of men have volunteered in the last three months compared to 26 per cent of women.

Dave believes the reason could be that there are now more volunteering opportunities for men, such as sports-related roles.

The report found overall levels of volunteering among the British public have increased significantly with one in four now saying they had volunteered for a charity, organisation or local community in the last three months.

Dave believes this is down to the profile of volunteering being raised through events such as the Community Stars awards run by the Telegraph & Argus and Bradford Council.

"In Bradford it is a really positive picture, really vibrant volunteering and I think also it is partly because we celebrate volunteering a lot. The Community Stars awards raise the profile of volunteering in our district," says Dave.

The number of young volunteers continues to rise with a third of 16 to 24-year-olds stating they had given their time. Regular worshippers are more than twice as likely to volunteer.

Joe Saxton, from nfpSynergy, says: “The number of men volunteering doubles in a decade! Number of young people volunteering doubles in a decade! These are extraordinary changes. It’s a really encouraging sign to see that so many more young people are volunteering and that the gap between men and women is narrowing, but all too often charities don’t think about how they can reach out to these groups. Targeting volunteer opportunities to appeal to different groups is essential to ensuring a steady supply of volunteers and capitalising on the skills they provide."