"GR-EAT: Guidelines for Recognition: European Advanced Tool" is a youth project aiming at enhancing the recognition of Non Formal and Informal Learning and at providing youth-led organisations with support and guidance to implement internal systems of recognition of the competences of their volunteers. Indeed, in the current youth unemployment crisis in Europe, there is a clear need to help young people identifying and assessing the competences (knowledge, skills, attitude) they have gained through their volunteer experience, in order to empower them to find a job and to bridge the gap between Education and Employment. There is also a clear need to recognise further the positive impact of Non Formal and Informal learning within youth-led organisations in terms of competences development: this recognition has to start from the organisations themselves, but should be completed by a social and political recognition. This project, by bringing together relevant stakeholders not only from the youth field, but also Formal Education, Life long learning and the employers' field, proposes to create a comprehensive tool which will serve the need of youth organisations and long term young volunteers, taking into account external expectations and needs. This project will be run during 2 years, enabling the partners to analyse and incorporate in the building of the common guidelines for youth organisations, expectations and needs from employers, from the Formal Education side, as well as to research how the quality assurance of assessment of NFIL can be ensured. Additionally, the project will also create an online platform gathering material, studies as well as the guidelines for youth organisations, putting the basis for an efficient advocacy campaign. "GR-EAT" proposes a concrete tool which can not only positively impact youth organisations and young volunteers, but which consequently brings positive impact on the overall issue of validation and recognition of NFIL, making young people familiar with identifying and documenting their competences, hence also supporting National Systems to be implemented for validation of NFIL by 2018. The campaigns which will be launched at the end of the project, will also target youth organisations, as well as employers and companies, raising their awareness about the tool and the positive impact of NFIL on competence development.
"GR-EAT: Guidelines for Recognition: European Advanced Tool" is a youth project aiming at enhancing the recognition of Non Formal and Informal Learning and at providing youth-led organisations with support and guidance to implement internal systems of recognition of the competences of their volunteers. In the current youth unemployment crisis in Europe, there is a clear need to help young people identifying and assessing the competences (knowledge, skills, attitude) they have gained through their volunteer experience, in order to empower them to find a job and to bridge the gap between Education and Employment. There is also a clear need to recognise further the positive impact of Non-Formal and Informal learning within youth-led organisations in terms of competences development: this recognition has to start from the organisations themselves, but should be completed by a social and political recognition. This project, by bringing together 6 relevant stakeholders not only from the youth field, but also Formal Education, lifelong learning and the employer's' field, proposes to create comprehensive guidelines which will serve the need of youth organisations and long term young volunteers, taking into account external expectations and needs. The project has the following objectives: Create common guidelines for recognition of NFIL acquired in volunteering context, supporting youth organisations in providing internal validation systems which can be recognised externally. Help long term volunteers to raise the self-awareness of their competencies acquired, its value in an employment context, and acquainting them with the identification and documentation procedures, useful to go through National Validation Systems. Raise awareness of companies on the benefits and impact of long term volunteering for transversal competence development. The partners of the project are: AEGEE / European Students’ Forum, Lifelong Learning Platform, La Ligue de l’enseignement, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Youth for Exchange and Understanding, World Organisation of the Scout Movement. During the 2-year duration of the project several researches were conducted and actions undertaken by the consortium in order to fulfil the aim of the project: Research on the expectations from employers and formal education towards the volunteers’ competences; Research and analysis of 11 already existing self-assessment tools in the youth field and lifelong learning; selection of best-suited methodologies to be used in the self-assessment of NFIL; Creation of quality indicators based on the research results; Creation of a publication and guidelines for youth organisations for starting their internal recognition process (based on main research findings); Trainings for multipliers to disseminate the results of the project; Round-table with youth stakeholders in order to disseminate the results of the project. Throughout the duration of the project consortium has reached out to different stakeholders in order to raise awareness on the importance of recognition of the competences. Partners have had a chance to disseminate the project to local, European and youth stakeholders at around 30 events and occasions, reaching directly more than 3500 people. Every presentation and direct encounter with stakeholders has brought affirmation that there is a need for long term young activists to identify the competences they have gained while volunteering. Therefore the publication together with the guidelines for youth organisations have been warmly welcomed by the stakeholders on the way towards the recognition of NFIL.