You could do a degree subject relevant to working in fundraising, which may give you an advantage when applying for jobs, especially in corporate fundraising. Subjects include:

• marketing
• media and communications
• public relations
• business studies

You could also do a university course in a subject like voluntary sector management or public service management.

Some of the larger UK charities offer work experience, internships and graduate training schemes. You can search the Charity Commission register for organisations.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

• 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree

You could take a college course in customer service to develop skills which are useful for this job.

This may help you when applying for volunteer and junior fundraising roles.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for these courses vary.

You could apply to do a Fundraiser Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship, with a charitable organisation.

This typically takes between 1 and 2 years to complete and is a mix of training in the workplace and off-the-job study.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

• 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship

You could start by working for a charity in an admin or retail support role, then move into fundraising once you've got some experience.

Volunteering is a good way to get experience in fundraising and to gain insights into the charity sector. It's also a great way to start making contacts, which might lead to paid job opportunities.

You can find out more about volunteering through:

• The National Council for Voluntary Organisations
• Do IT

You can apply directly to job vacancies in charity fundraising, if you've got relevant experience from other work, for example advertising, public relations, events, sales or finance.

You could do a specialist course like the Certificate or Diploma in Fundraising offered by the Chartered Institute of Fundraising. You'll normally need to be working in fundraising to do these.

You'll need:

• customer service skills
• the ability to use your initiative
• persistence and determination
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• persuading skills
• the ability to work well with others
• sensitivity and understanding
• business management skills
• to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

As a charity fundraiser, you could:

• research, develop and plan fundraising ideas and activities
• manage street and door-to-door collections, and online appeals
• recruit and train volunteers
• keep admin records up to date
• manage high street charity shops and online stores
• assess campaigns to see how effective they've been
• build and manage partnerships with donors
• give talks to the public and organisations about your charity's work
• create online content, write reports and issue press releases

You could work from home or in an office.