“EaSY_ Evaluate Soft skills in International Youth volunteering” is a 31 months project launched by FOCSIV to foster the assessment of transversal skills coming from non formal learning, in particular from Youth International volunteering.In recent years the number of young people having international volunteering experiences has particularly increased thanks to different National and European programmes, such as the European Voluntary Service, the Servizio Civile Nazionale in Italy, the Service Civique and the Volontariat de Solidarité Internationale in France and the Voluntary missionary service in Portugal. Notwithstanding these experiences are recognized as highly formative for the Youth, young people have a lot of difficulties in having such competences recognized in the labour market.Steps forward towards the recognition of professional skills both at national and European level have been made, while nothing has been done about soft skills recognition so far, even if competences like Flexibility, Team work, Problem solving, Leadership are essential to guarantee effective job performance and active citizenship at social and economic level. In order to contribute to soft skills recognition coming from Youth International volunteering experiences, FOCSIV, FEC e European Guild with long term experience in that field and Elidea, I-O psychologists, cooperate at the present project. The project aims at elaborating a Model of Soft skills assessment coming from Youth International volunteering and grading. The model will be used to develop specific training tools for Youth workers: the first one to enhance young people soft skills in preparation of international volunteering and the second to support and guide young volunteers after their experience. Moreover an online interactive platform will be created to young people soft-skills self-assessment, where a series of tests could help young people to verify which level of soft skills they’ve developed at the end of the experience. The Model and the tools produced will be trained and field tested on a sample of youth workers (64) and young people (395) in the three Countries. The results of the field test will be used to evaluate the efficiency and functionality of the Model.All the intellectual outputs will be open source and freely accessible to possible stakeholders.The methodology used is based on a down-up and learner-centered approach, both young people and youth workers are indeed at the center of the project activities. The model EaSY is created through a process of reconstruction of the International Volunteering experience, through young volunteers interviews and youth workers focus groups. Once the model and the related tools are elaborated, a field test will take place on a sample of young people and youth workers in the three Countries.The present project will produce a significant impact on the Youth, who will be more conscious on the meaning of the volunteering experience in terms of soft skills acquired and will know how to value them in order to find a suitable professional career at the end of the international volunteering experience. Moreover thanks to the Online test results, young people will integrate the existing European instruments (Europass mobility, Youthpass certification, European Curriculum) to attest soft skills in a more objective and effective way, by using a shared European code relating to the International Youth volunteering. The youth workers will benefit from the project tools and outputs too, professionalizing their role and improving their capacity to guide young people during the international experiences (particularly, through the pre-departure training, the monitoring, the final evaluation and vocational guidance). Similarly the International Volunteering sector will acquire more competences to offer highly formative experiences to young people, useful for their future professional life. In the long term perspective the project results will support National and European Institutions in the creation of assessment systems and certification methods on soft skills and hopefully the Model EaSYwould support Authorities to enrich the European Area of Skills and Qualification with a common frame on Soft skills.
EaSY_ Evaluate Soft skills in International Youth volunteering is a 24 months project managed by FOCSIV to foster the assessment of transversal skills acquired upon non formal learning experiences, in particular Youth International volunteering. In recent years the number of young people having international volunteering experiences has particularly increased thanks to National and European programmes, such as the EVS, the Servizio Civile Universale in Italy, the Service Civique and the Volontariat de Solidarité Internationale - VSI in France, EU AId Volunteers, the Voluntary missionary services in Portugal and so on. Notwithstanding these experiences are recognized as highly formative for the Youth, young people face difficulties in having such competencies socially recognized into the labour market. Steps forward towards the recognition of professional skills both at national and European level have been made, while nothing has been done about soft skills recognition so far, even if soft skills are considered as essential to guarantee effective job performance and active citizenship. In order to contribute to soft skills recognition and valorisation of Youth International volunteering experiences, FOCSIV, FEC e the European Guild - with long term experience in the volunteering field- and Elidea, I-O psychologists, cooperated in the present project. The project aimed at elaborating a Model of Soft skills assessment and grading. The model was used to develop specific training tools for Youth workers: a Guide to enhance young people soft skills in preparation to international volunteering and the second one to support orientation upon the international experience. Moreover an online interactive platform was created to provide young people with a soft-skills self-assessment test to measure the soft skills developed. The Model and the tools produced were field tested on a sample of youth workers (65) and young people (400) in hree Countries: Italy, France and Portugal. The results of the field test and the training were used to evaluate the efficiency and functionality of the Model and of the tools produced. All the intellectual outputs are open source and freely accessible on the platform www.easy-softskills.eu. The methodology used is based on a down-up and learner-centered approach, focus on the centrality of young people and youth workers. The EaSY Model was indeed created through a mapping activity on International Volunteering experiences in the countries involved, with young volunteers' interviews and youth workers' focus groups. The present project produced a significant impact on the Youth involved, who became more conscious on the learning dimension of volunteering in terms of soft skills and were more able to valorize the experience for future employabiliity. Moreover thanks to the Online test results, young people may use a concret Passport of transversal skills to integrate the existing European instruments (Europass mobility, Youthpass certification, European Curriculum) to attest soft skills in a more objective and effective way. The youth workers inolved benefitted as well from the project and its tools, professionalizing their role and improving their capacity to guide young people during non formal learning experiences (particularly international youth volunteering). Similarly, organisations active in the International Volunteering sector acquired more competences to offer highly formative experiences to young people. Considering the high levels of the project' s results, the partners were invited to different EU events (i,e. EU Validation Festival organised by the Commission in June, 14th - 15th 2018 in Brussels and as expert to the Peer Learning Activity organised by the DG Education in Brussels on the 22nd-23rd of January 2019). Finally, the project was awarded with the LifeLong learning Award as the best practice in the category "validation" in 2018.