Volonteer your Way to Employment

In the European Union, almost 100 million citizens of all ages invest their time, talents and money to make a positive contribution to their community by volunteering in civil society organizations, youth clubs, hospitals, schools, in sport clubs, etc. Volunteering is an active expression of civic participation which strengthens common European values such as solidarity and social cohesion. Volunteering also provides important learning opportunities, because involvement in voluntary activities can provide people with new skills and competences that can improve their employability. This is especially important at this time of economic crisis. Volunteering plays an important role in sectors as varied and diverse as education, youth, culture, sport, environment, health, social care, consumer protection, humanitarian aid, development policy, research, equal opportunities and external relations. “Volunteer your way to employment” training idea rose from years of experience of the organization in working with local volunteers and in cooperating with volunteering dedicated youth organisations in Europe. While designing and implementing volunteering programmes for young people on one hand and exchanging practice and experience with partner organisations, two main things were concluded: a) There are many organisations around Europe that are working with young volunteers on everyday basis, but lack strategy and long-term set objectives, that would ensure personal development of volunteers on one hand and sustainability of organisations on the other. b) Volunteering programmes, if they are meeting needs of young people and have their competences assessed in a proper way, can do a lot for future employment of young people, by developing their competencies, by empowering them and by incorporating life long learning into their objectives. Therefore, the main aim of the project to increase the employability of young people in Europe through tailored volunteering programmes. Specific objectives: • To train 26 youth workers to develop and implement volunteering programmes that would lead to enhancement of young people’s employability; • To gain understanding of volunteering programmes as a powerful tool for inclusion, empowerment and personal development of young people; • To understand the importance of experiential learning and practice in increasing employability of young people; • To increase ability to asses competences of young people and develop programmes that would build up on their existing competences and develop ones that are missing for their future employment; • To develop understanding and ability to match needs of young people on one side and job markets on the other; • To develop a base of competences needed for implementation of the volunteering programmes; • To improve facilitation skills needed for non-formal education and “learning to learn” and ability to incorporate them in the volunteering programmes; • To develop abilities to follow young people through volunteering programmes and support their personal development; • To introduce Erasmus+ programme as a platform for the development of international volunteering programmes; • To share the “Manual for employable volunteering programmes” as new tool developed on first training “Include me in Employment” organised on January 2012, in Sremski Karlovci, Serbia. • To share experience, knowledge and skills on trends in employment paths and in supporting youth to proactively take their future and carrier in their own hands.