There are dozens of tools for validating volunteers’ skills. Are they good and what would make them better? Have they been helpful to you? Tell us about your experiences!
ImproVal project aims to provide a synthesis of the work undertaken in different European countries on the validation of volunteering experience. We are interested in knowing how different validating tools (e.g. Youthpass, Europass and other tools created in different EU countries) function in practice.
Would you be able to give us your insight?
We have created two questionnaires in several EU languages:
1) Questions for people working with volunteers
The first one is aimed at people working with volunteers. With this questionnaire we are trying to get information on experiences in working with volunteers and the validation of skills which volunteers gain through their voluntary work.
- in Dutch: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Organisations/Dutch/
- in English: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Organisations/English
- in Finnish: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Organisations/Finnish/
- in French: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Organisations/French
- in German: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Organisations/German/
- in Slovak: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Organisations/Slovak/
2) Questions for volunteers
The second one is aimed at volunteers. With this questionnaire we are gathering information on the experiences and opinions on using validation tools.
- in Dutch: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Volunteers/Dutch/
- in English: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Volunteers/English/
- in Finnish: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Volunteers/Finnish/
- in French: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Volunteers/French/
- in German: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/
- in Slovak: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/Volunteers/Slovak/
Both questionnaires are open until 31 December. They should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
The outcome of this study will be an article where we create a summary and conclusions. Have the volunteers or organisations been able to use the outcomes of the validation process? What makes the tools easy or difficult to use? The idea is to give new information and ideas for people working with skills validation in the voluntary sector.
If you have any questions, please contact Jens Aichinger, University of Bamberg, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or other member of the ImproVal team.
Please feel free to share this page to your own networks!
Others
On 16 and 22 June, ImproVal partners organised a series of three webinars on the topic of learning new skills in volunteering and validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL).
ImproVal partners co-published a new study which aims to discover whether and how volunteers and voluntary organisations have been able to use the outcomes of validation.
Between January and June 2019, ImproVal partners have been working hard to collect validation tools for volunteers in the EU. As a result, more than 40 tools have been collected. They are available in 22 different languages.
On 29-30 of October, partners from 5 countries met in Helsinki to kick off the ImproVal project, which, over the next two years, will focus on improving validation in the voluntary sector. Partners shared their experiences from previous validation projects.