Focus Group Report Abstract
Stronger States’ interest in
civil and voluntary services emerges from the Focus Group of each of the
country partners of the CSA project. States increasingly deem civil and
voluntary services to be a valuable vehicle to spur better access to the job
market for young people.
Who decides to become volunteer is firmly intentioned to improve his/her
vocational training. On the other hand, who selects the volunteers is mainly
intentioned to choose individuals which are highly motivated in providing a
service to the society, and are precious team players, proactive colleagues,
and problem solvers. Notwithstanding that skilled individuals are rarely
required as civil service competences are acquired ‘on the job’, most of the
volunteers have high educational degrees (B.A. or more). It has emerged that
more attention is paid to the choice of the volunteers at the very beginning
of the selection process by looking at the needs and expectations of the
volunteers and by finding ways to contribute to their individual vocational
training in order to ease their access to the job market. The project
manager/coordinator is often perceived as a central figure in the volunteer
eyes. In some instances, the project manager is mentor that teaches the job
and therefore his/her role in the training path of the apprentice/volunteer
is elevated exponentially, in some others he/she is a mere project
administrator, and the real trainers become the reference point.
In order to nourish the organizational and management need of any given
project, often the trainers are structured as a team and in charge of
training path of the volunteers. Accordingly, the awareness of the necessity
of skilled and competent trainers is increasing. In particular, the Dutch
partner points out that to have better visual impartiality, it is key to
have a separation of duties between who is in charge of the volunteer’s
training path and who has to evaluate the volunteer’s performance.
In order to satisfy the duties imposed by the Public Entities in charge of
the management of voluntary initiatives as well as the expectations of the
volunteer, it has emerged that the voluntary institutions provide not only a
structured training path but also offer additional ad-hoc activities. Some
institutions propose structured and timely supporting training such as
tutoring during the implementation of the project. These are often occasions
in which trainers and trainee meet and exchange ideas, experiences, and
opinions to improve the project.
These instances of interaction/communication confirm the commitment of the
voluntary institutions to comply with the rules imposed to the civil service,
and also their willingness to integrate them in order to guarantee the real
success of the project.
A need emerged in the Focus group discussions is that more room for
structured and/or informal exchange of young volunteers among institutions
should be pursued. It would grow their motivations and their luggage of
experiences. In order to safeguard the volunteers’ expectations, a
structured monitoring approach of their whole voluntary experience is being
discussed as a feasible option. It has been proposed an informal way of
doing it by scheduling discussions between trainee and trainer when desired,
as well as a more formal technique with a specific timetable and experts’
testing. The same effort to improve experience and support of the volunteer
should apply in terms of evaluation. An important step is that it is no
longer solely the institution that evaluates the volunteer’s performance,
but should the same volunteer be the one who evaluates his/her experience in
the institution as well as the institution in its complexity and efficiency.
It has been suggested to employ an external observer, but not yet formally.
Yet, an urging necessity that the constituencies of the focus group have
agreed on is the certification of the competences acquired by the volunteer
during his/her traineeship. Some institutions already provide a
certification which includes a structured evaluation of the candidate. It
describes the initial competences of the volunteers, his/her learning paths,
and the final outcomes/achievements. It also describes the competences
gained formally and informally, along with technical and specific skills
acquired. Unfortunately, it is neither always required nor recognized.
In Italy, the Cenasca Cisl Nazionale has recently ascertained that an
intermediary figure (in between the volunteer and the project coordinator)
with the mandate to evaluate the efficiency of the institution and the
efficacy of the projects undertaken and to certify the competences of the
volunteer is an option that should be taken into consideration.
In Bulgaria, a project to introduce a law that regulates and ensures a
certification of voluntary work in the NGOs is under way.
The Dutch partner has already produced a well defined path to evaluate the
competences gained in the volunteer ship. It assesses the initial
competences of the volunteer, a developmental plan is then set, and at the
end of the experience a final evaluation is completed with a clear
indication of skills obtained and goals met.
In Spain, a written evaluation of the competences of the volunteer is
completed only if the volunteer requests it, although the local NGOs are
trying ways to institutionalize it.
To sum up, civil service is gaining momentum. And it is proven by the
pressuring requests to certify the skills acquired even informally, but also
to formalise the validation of the competences gained during this experience
that is deemed more and more significant.
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