Volunteer Advisers

Main duties and responsibilities may include:

• Interviewing clients, both face-to-face and on the telephone, letting the client explain their enquiry and helping the client to set priorities
• Finding, interpreting and communicating the relevant information and exploring options and implications to enable the client to come to a decision
• Acting, where necessary, on behalf of the client, negotiating drafting or writing letters or making appropriate referrals
• Completing clear and accurate case records
• Recognising the root causes of problems and participating in taking appropriate action
• Keeping up to date on important issues by attending the appropriate training and essential reading
• Attending bureau meetings.

Personal skills and qualities that an adviser needs:

• A commitment to the aims and principles of the CAB service
• Excellent communication skills
• To be open and approachable
• To be able to communicate clearly both orally and in writing
• To be able to sift through information and extract that which is relevant
• Basic mathematical skills, including percentages
• Respect for views, values and cultures which are different to their own
• To understand why confidentiality is important
• Open to using computers on a regular basis
• A positive attitude to self-development and assessment
• To be able to work as part of a team
• Able to recognise their own limits and boundaries in the role.

Please note that we are not taking any further applications for trainee adviser posts at the moment but if you would like to be considered for our next intake, please do express your interest and we will contact you when we start our next recruiting round.