Our main idea is to increase recognition of voluntary youth work in society and among employers, to acknowledge and validate youth volunteering in local, national level, develop volunteers' competences and link them to the labour market, make their work validated by their skills and knowledge gained as a part of non-formal learning in local projects. The project will bring in a united platform and dimension variety of stakeholders of voluntary youth work, including governmental agencies, public educational bodies and civil society organizations. This cooperation will create process, environment and outcomes, which will develop capacities of all involved parties. The impact of the project results will reach to the fields of legislative, volunteer management, companies’ human resources, volunteers’ recognition and employability of young people. The project is crucial contribution to the process of recognition of non-formal education and voluntary youth work. It increases the capacity of youth organisations, as it gives a possibility to develop national recognition tools specified to local needs. Youth workers and youth leaders from different European youth organizations can join to the development of recognition tools and using the existing experience, develop their own.The project will success, which will increase youth active involvement in the society starting with decision making processes. Young people will understand that the voluntary activities will give them knowledge, skills and experience which they need for being hired, recognized and involved in society. The civil society will have skilled youth organizations, which know how to work with volunteers and how to make visible voluntary work and validate the learning outcomes of non-formal education. We believe that the active sector of volunteers is one of the key important factors of community development.By encouraging the concept of active volunteering as part of democratic and strong civil society, we will share all of our outcomes on the European level. Young people will feel that the voluntary youth work gives them knowledge, skills and experience which is recognized by the state and public bodies, governments, society and protected by law.The project will become a unique bridge for the cooperation between the governmental structures and youth NGOs, between formal and non-formal education, between policy makers and practitioners.
“The “Voluntary Youth Work Recognition for Employability” was a long-term Erasmus+ Capacity Building Project in the Field of Youth. It was developed by Social and Youth Workers and its European partners. Due to several meetings, the consortium set the most important goals of the project. The main objectives were to increase recognition of voluntary youth work in society and among youth field employers, to acknowledge and validate youth volunteering at local, regional, and national levels, develop volunteers' competencies and link them to the labour market through validation of the skills and knowledge gained as a part of non-formal learning.The main driving force to start this project was the high need to gain the acceptance of voluntary youth work in society and among youth field employers because the appreciation of volunteering varies from country to country. While in Western and Scandinavian countries there are plenty of recognition tools created for volunteers, Eastern Partnership countries have some problems with structured recognition methods of voluntary youth work. That’s why all the partners decided to improve the quality and validation of youth work, non-formal learning, and volunteering locally, and undertake this project to enhance particularly voluntary work, their synergies, and complementarities with the labour market and government. The project brought in a united platform and dimension variety of stakeholders of voluntary youth work, including governmental agencies, public educational bodies, and civil society organisations.This project involved a wide range of countries, bringing experience and cooperation from Spain to Armenia and from Norway to Cyprus. It included 5 activities, 4 international, and 1 local awareness-raising campaign. The project included both Capacity Building (Conference, Meeting) and Mobility (Study Visit, Training Course) activities. Youth workers and youth leaders from different European youth organisations joined for the development of recognition tools and used their existing experience to develop their own. The project played a crucial role in increasing the capacities of the involved organisations to work on the recognition of non-formal education and voluntary youth work: It increased the capacity of youth organisations and gave a possibility to develop national recognition tools specified to local needs.Due to this project young people understood that volunteering is an incredible way to learn new things, develop, grow their skills and career pathways, and discover what you’re passionate about. Participants also understood that volunteering can help people to build strong networks and transferable skills, such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving, which can benefit their future careers. Another very important outcome of this project was the recognition tools created by the participants and partners involved in the project. Tools like L - EARN, Video refleCtiVe, Skills presenter, YouTHRec, and Open Online Badges were created, which had a great contribution in the realisation of the project aims. Unquestionably, this project gave us significant results, developing the capacities of all involved parties.