Organisations have different ways of recruiting their volunteers. Most will probably not interview you formally before they place you but they will want to have an informal chat following their own recruitment procedures. However, if the role has some responsibility, for instance, for money, or if you will be working with vulnerable people or with dangerous equipment, the interview may be more formal. In either case this gives you, and the organisation, a chance to assess each other and an opportunity to ask questions.
The sort of questions the organisation will probably want to ask you will vary from organisation to organisation and depend on the type of voluntary work you are interested in. However, a typical interviewer (formal or informal) may ask any of the following:
1 why you are interested in volunteering
2 what sort of voluntary work are you interested in
3 what your particular skills are
4 what new skills would you like to learn through your volunteer work
5 how much time you have to offer
6 Do you have special needs, are you willing to undergo a police check.
You can ask them anything that you feel unsure about. You may want to check some or all of the following:
1 Reimbursement of expenses
2 Training/qualification opportunities
3 What variety will there be in the work?
4 Support/supervision (someone to talk to regularly about how you are getting on)
5 How volunteering may affect your benefits, if you are claiming
An informal chat or interview also gives you an opportunity to look at where you will be volunteering and meet some of the other staff and volunteers.
In some cases you may need to have a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check and most organisations will ask you to provide references. The CRB check can take a while to process, but you can ask about supervised volunteering whilst you wait.