Part of the confusion is that VITA (which is what many folks are used to seeing "back home") is limited to low income returns. AARP's program is under a separate program (Tax Counseling for the Elderly) which, oddly enough, is not income or age limited. It does, however, have specific restrictions based on what is within the scope of practice.
Most volunteers in both VITA and TCE are not tax accountants. They are usually folks just like you who have an interest in taxes. They have to pass certification exams each year. Those exams, along with the program guidelines, set what types of tax issues they are qualified to deal with. The scope of practice covers most common returns.
In some cases, specific waivers have been given by the IRS to cover issues which would be otherwise out of scope. In Alaska, the university/Alaska Business Development Center's program covered fishing returns (schedule F) as well as more complex schedule C small businesses. Of course, the teams traveling to remote villages usually have a faculty member from the university with a background in tax who had been given specific training on the subject. We also had a CPA and an IRS specialist on call 24/7 to answer our questions.
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