About the project

Project number: 2014-1-DE02-KA200-000676
Duration: 01.09.2014 – 31.08.2016
Funding program: Erasmus + Cooperation and Innovation for Good Practices

Volunteering grants vital and valuable experiences to people, who thereby develop new skills and useful know-how. This is not only helpful in volunteering-related activities but also improves the employability of individuals. Considering existing challenges and requirements in the labor market, the more employability skills people gain, the better they can tackle prospective obstacles. Thus, civic engagement can be seen as an important and powerful source of informal learning that potentially leads to sustainable employment.

However, skills gained through volunteering are not always sufficiently recognized or accredited, although evidence suggests that civic engagement holds considerable economic value. According to a study on volunteering in the European Union, it contributes approximately 1-5% to a country’s GDP. This clearly indicates that volunteering occupies an essential place in society as well as in the economy. However, due to demographic shifts, NGOs also face a significant lack of resources. Therefore, to continue adding value to these fields, social organizations and institutions need to work more professionally, efficiently, and effectively. Bearing these facts in mind, the German partner organization has already developed a training concept specifically for volunteers and volunteer coordinators.

This program aims to promote professional skills and competences, such as those in team or project management. Although these skills primarily help people perform their voluntary work more economically, training participants also benefit in terms of developing crucial employability competences. Additionally, other project partners have already initiated training approaches concerning the aforementioned issues.

With the “Professional Volunteering” project, the partner organizations aim, on the one hand, to strengthen volunteering in their respective countries. By qualifying individuals through professional training, NGOs benefit from efficiently working employees and volunteers. Thus, the lack of resources is addressed by enhancing effectiveness. On the other hand, the individual benefit for each training participant is a vital aspect of the project. Volunteers acquire valuable skills necessary to navigate challenges in the job market. The project aims to facilitate their efforts to consolidate their competitiveness, also by providing them with a clearly structured, solid, and convincing reference according to an agreed-upon format. To offer training to a wide range of volunteers, trainers are necessary. Therefore, the project includes not only the development of a training curriculum for volunteers but also for volunteer coordinators and trainers. Through the project, volunteering should be recognized as a pathway to employment, also by employers.

Project Results

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The following publications reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

These handbooks & curricula are for private use only! It is not allowed to copy or display for redistribution the curriculum to third parties or for commercial purposes. To copy or download this curriculum or using it for profit, you need the written consent of Gemeinsam leben & lernen in Europa or another partner of the ProVol consortium. Also the usage of text passages and graphics needs the written consent of the partners. The right of usage stays with us.

Pictures

About the partnership

ProVol was a European partnership between Germany, United Kingdom, Romania and Czech Republic. This partnership, coordinated by the German NGO Gemeinsam leben & lernen in Europa e.V., aimed to develop an accessible, flexible and sustainable European model for training for volunteer coordinators and volunteers to improve the effectiveness of volunteering activities and the quality of the services they deliver. It is funded by the EU-program Erasmus +.

Volunteering matters

18-24 Lower Clapton Rd,
London E5 0PD, UK
https://volunteeringmatters.org.uk/