Students – and young people in general – are more and more interested in engagement issue. When they are invovled, it is most of the time because of their personal conviction and they don’t expect anything in return. However, it is useful for them to have knowledge on practices about their national civic engagement legal frame, to know how looking for an asking structure or to create their own association. On the same way, these engagement activities always enable the young people involved to develop and master news skills, most often extra-curicular, without neither they realize nor they foresee to add them to their cover letters or CV. Partners and associated partners gathered in this project – universities and associations located in six European countries –jointly wish to offer these young engaged people some options they will built together in the three years coming, within one project structured in three main phases : Raising awareness of commitment, by communicating in an innovative manner to the widest possible public Shape young people involved in engagement activities, by making adapted pedagogical solutions (lectures, workshop, teaching paths) Identify and value acquired skills by young people engaged to enable them to use it on their future studies or professional integration projects. The creation of a “Committed Student Status” allowing to replace the mandatory training by a time dedicated to engagement and included in the diplomas obtained, will institutionalise a project entirely dedicated to support young people.
The main objectives of the project were: The organization of "debathons" co-constructed by the partners, in different partner countries, featuring engaged students selected as part of the project and trained in the exercise (public speaking, argumentation and counter-argumentation...). The themes of the debathons were topical/social issues either chosen by the students or imposed. Debathons were held in public, usually in a public space in the host city. The collective drafting of a "white paper" summarizing the procedures implemented as part of the project, with the prospect of spreading it. The creation of a digital platform enabling engaged students to self-assess the skills they have acquired as part of their engagement. The definition and testing of a "engaged student status", enabling beneficiaries to have flexible working hours, the possibility of substituting work on their engagement project for their compulsory internship, and access to individual support.
La Rochelle Université offered to the partner universities of EU-Conexus (a consortium of European universities) to work together on the issue of valuing student civic engagement. The aim was to begin by collectively establishing a definition of student civic engagement, and then to discuss ways of supporting students commited to the process of enhancing the skills acquired through civic engagement: conferences, specific workshops, self-assessment. It seemed logical to us to ask the member universities of the EU-CONEXUS European University if they would be willing to support us in this process of reflection and co-construction of solutions for our students. The needs were first, to define what we meant by "student civic engagement", then to develop mechanisms to identify engaged students, raising awareness of the notion of engagement among all students and finally to support engaged students in their projects. All of this while collectively developing means to encourage the recognition and validation of skills acquired through engagement projects.