Destination eValidation Erasmus Project

Project Title

Destination eValidation

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 addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition, transparency, certification; Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

Volunteering has always played an important role in many sectors of the European economy and especially in the non-profit sector, but for a very long time its contribution was not officially recognized at EU level. In 2012, the role of volunteering in the EU was highlighted in a resolution adopted by the European Parliament. The resolution stated that “the competences and knowledge gained by volunteers should help them find jobs or be recognized as part of their training”. Although different target groups can have different motivation for volunteering, depending on their age, gender or life aspirations, as a result they all develop new competences or improve existing ones, gain work experience and boost their personal development. These are competences and experiences which could be used in a variety of different jobs, help achieve new qualifications, build a career or simply gain personal satisfaction. Unfortunately, they are often not properly validated in a way that would be recognized by public institutions, certifying bodies or potential employers. Our partnership aimed to develop a methodology for validation of different competences acquired through volunteering with an online tool.

The EQF was developed to make qualifications more readable and understandable all over Europe. Different European countries are developing different NQFs and are on different levels of implementation. Finding different validation tools and comparing their structure with the NQF and also the EQF will, on the one hand, show the differences between NQFs, and on the other hand support the comparison of NQFs and gives a chance to include a new European validation tool for volunteers.

Within this project, nine organizations from nine different countries have been working together. On the one hand, it was a mixture of organizations who are experts in the field of competence validation (e.g. University of Paderborn) and organizations who are dealing with social inclusion (e.g. Fundación CV Pacto Empleo Valencia). On the other hand, it was a combination of partners with varying levels of experience in European Union projects.

The aim of this project was the visualization, documentation and recognition of formally, non-formally and informally acquired competences in the field of volunteering. Based on that, an online tool for the validation of volunteering was developed, which will make the management of human resources of organizations working with volunteers easier by providing them with an online and multilevel validation methodology helpful during recruitment, training and referencing. The access to validation tools for disadvantaged groups has been improved by creating a website which includes a personal and multilevel competences endorsement mechanism and information about different NQF and the validation in other countries. We supported awareness raising of public bodies and policy makers about the importance of a common validation framework for the competences acquired through volunteering in third-sectors and facilitating the recognition of volunteering competences by relevant stakeholders by engaging them in national seminars and a transnational conference.

The outcomes of this project -with free access for everyone- are:
– information through a structure analysis about the NQF in the partner countries and validation tools for competences,
– a guideline of validation methodologies from different countries in different languages available on a website,
– an online tool for validation of competences (tested, improved and ready for use) available in eight different languages, and
– an eBook available for everyone containing all information from the project and additional one.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 286799 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET PADERBORN & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Cooperazione Paesi Emergenti
• Opintotoiminnan Keskusliitto ry
• Fundación de la Comunidad Valenciana del Pacto para el Empleo en la ciudad de Valencia
• KERIGMA – INSTITUTO DE INOVACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO SOCIAL DE BARCELOS
• Alpha Vision
• Aile ve Sosyal Politikalar Ankara Il Müdürlügü
• SOCIETATEA DE GEOGRAFIE DIN ROMANIA FILIALA SUCEAVA