Enhancing volunteering and its recognition in higher education curricula and on the labour market in Eastern Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Enhancing volunteering and its recognition in higher education curricula and on the labour market in Eastern Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition, transparency, certification; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

The context of this project is marked by low levels of civic engagement and relatively high levels of graduate youth unemployment/education mismatch in Eastern Europe. Young people are hardly engaged in volunteer activities, although there is an expressed need for it. Further, upon graduation, employers are hesitating in employing graduates, as they are unable to provide professional experience. The aim of the VOLEE project is to enhance volunteering of university students in Eastern Europe and to increase their labour market integration, as well as to contribute to the internalization of universities and the labour market.
The objectives are:
1. To improve attitudes towards volunteering in university students and to increase the number of volunteers in the three higher education institutions.
2. To create new and to sustain existing partnerships for volunteering with NGOs and state institutions.
3. To elaborate the methodology of recognition and certification of volunteering experience in form of credits at the higher education units.
4. To promote free movement of the educated young labour force within the European Union countries.
5. To shape the attitudes and to improve the receptivity of possible employers towards employing graduates with volunteering experience, thus reducing youth unemployment.
We are expecting the following results:
1. The rate of university students engaged in volunteering activities will increase by 10% between September 2020 and February 2022 .
2. A total of 15 new partnerships with NGOs and state institutions will be created in the three locations.
3. The methodological guidelines for the recognition of volunteering in form of credits will be elaborated.
4. The uniform structure of the volunteering portfolio will be elaborated, and it can be used at job interviews in any country of the European Union.
5. The rate of students employed shortly after graduation and the rate of institutions employing new graduates will increase by 10% each.
The achievement of the proposed objectives and the delivery of results will be warranted by a strict monitoring activity within the project.
The project team is made up of 6 university teachers : the three contact persons form the executive team, one is responsible for the budget control and two are monitoring.
The total number of participants is 12.235 persons: about 12.100 students from the three universities, 24 university teachers and technicians who produce the intellectual outputs, participants at the multiplier events: 30 university teachers, 15 institution representatives, 45 employers, and participants at the Transnational Project Meetings: 10 local stakeholders and 5 university leaders.
The project activities are based around the sensibilization and awareness raising in participants. A variety of methods will be used in order to implement the activities and achieve the objectives. The activities and their methodology are: quantitative and qualitative survey (statistics, text analysis), awareness raising campaigns (discussions, exemplification), training ( interactive civic education, communication), scientific conference (presentations), elaborating a uniform volunteering contract type (document analysis), volunteering portfolio (certification, document analysis, report), methodological guideline for the recognition of volunteering in form of university credits (curriculum analysis, needs analysis), job exchange platform (presentation, discussion), alumni database analysis (statistics).
The project’s impact upon the target groups are complex. The labour market integration of university student will improve. Institutions will have a large immersion base from volunteering students of different specializations and employers will obtain good labour force. Policy makers will recognize the importance in shaping legislation and policy to regulate volunteering, based on good practice from the project. University leadership will contribute to the emergence of good practices in more universities. University teachers and trainers will benefit from the program as a legal base for volunteering activities will emerge, and teachers will be willing to motivate future student generations, too. The character of this project is interdisciplinary, many fields of sciences will benefit from its scholarly results.
The longer term benefits of the project are the increasing number of young volunteers which will lead to a stronger civil society in Eastern Europe. We hope that our project activities will reach stakeholders, too, to propose, sustain and elaborate the necessary regulations on volunteering in these countries. Through the sensibilization of employers and the successful job entry of the first graduates, we are hoping that this good practice will serve as precedent for the labour market integration of future graduates, too. Efficient dissemination and further activities are planned to ensure the sustainability of good practices.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 69630 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITATEA SAPIENTIA DIN MUNICIPIUL CLUJ-NAPOCA & Country: RO

Project Partners

• DEBRECENI EGYETEM
• Univerzita J. Selyeho