ABSTRACT
Involving volunteer workers in social support has become more popular in most developing countries. In Saudi Arabia, volunteer work has been underutilised due to a lack of understanding of the roles involved, and this has affected the development of the national identity programme. Hence, there is a lack of qualitative studies aimed at exploring the role of volunteer work in promoting national identity. To address this issue, the present study sought to investigate the role of volunteerism in strengthening the national identity programme to achieve the country’s Vision 2030. The study adopted the qualitative phenomenological method. A sample of 20 informants was purposefully selected. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were used to gather data and interpretive phenomenology techniques were used to analyse the data. The findings reveal that young volunteers at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University lack skills such as patience, deliberation, and impartiality. The results further revealed that the social benefit of volunteering includes enhancing citizenship and pride in one’s country, which have positive impacts on the wider community; this serves as a foundation for strengthening the national identity programme to realise the aims of Vision 2030. The findings support the recommendation that the government should implement mechanisms to enhance volunteer work in the country. This study is significant because it will assist policymakers in improving the national identity of Vision 2030 and provide a detailed body of knowledge on university students’ experiences as volunteer workers. Therefore, the novelty of this study contributes to the practice of solving problems in volunteer work programmes.
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