Lifelong Learning Platform | LLLP - European Civil Society for Education

Volunteering

Volunteering plays an indispensable and capital role in lifelong learning. There, volunteers are parents, learners or educators of all ages willing to improve education and training systems. Volunteering is an expression of active citizenship that enriches democracy and contributes to develop solidarity and social cohesion, a value which is not only in great need in the current economic and social climate, but also one upon which the European Union has been built.

Volunteering is freely given, but not cost free – it needs and deserves targeted support from all stakeholders – volunteer organisations, government at all levels, businesses and an enabling policy environment including a volunteering infrastructure. Volunteering should not be instrumentalised nor used to replace paid work notably in public services and care systems.

Volunteering enables volunteers to develop skills and competencies for personal, social and civic development that one could not have gained in traditional or professional systems. However, today these competences are seldom recognised by formal education, companies or institutions. Volunteers need to be supported if they express the wish to have the knowledge and skills acquired through volunteering periods recognised and validated. In this sense, educational providers have a specific role to play in terms of guidance and training.

Resources

  • LLLP works to improve the validation of competences in the voluntary sector

    Why improving validation in the voluntary sector?
    Validation or the “validation of non-formal and informal learning” (VNFIL) is defined at EU level as the process of the identification, documentation, assessment and certification of competences. This definition has been widely shared and adopted since its mention in a Council Recommendation from 2012, which is the key policy document at EU level that recommended Member States to develop VNFIL provisions. During this last decade, EU institutions, national governments […]

  • Job Bridge Award – An EU-wide competition on validation of competences in volunteering

    Validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL), the process that consist in the identification, documentation, assessment and certification of competences, is high on the agenda of the Lifelong Learning Platform. For that reason, LLLP partnered with 7 other organisations in the European Project “Job Bridge for volunteers” (2018-2020) to develop the capacity of volunteer-based organisations to assess the competences of their volunteers as well as their learning needs and progress.

    The applications are now open for […]

  • COMANITY, a new programme for youth and social inclusion

    For two years, the Lifelong Learning platform cooperated with 8 organisations (university, research centers, municipality, social cooperative, NGOs) from across the EU to develop a new inclusive programme for youth workers and young people, the COMANITY programme. As the European project is coming to its end and because it was such a great and successful programme, we want to give it a legacy. That’s why we are launching this call […]

  • EVENT REPORT – SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUTH WORK

    On November 13th, LLLP with the support of COMANITY project partners organised an EU Round Table on the very timely topic of ‘Skills for the Future of Youth work‘ in Brussels (agenda). It was the COMANITY project’s final conference. The event was therefore also a celebration of two years of fruitful collaborative work between the nine organisations that composed the partnership. Over 60 participants from across the EU attended and actively contributed to the discussions. 

    See the photos of the event here

    Joe […]

  • Peer learning on validation of transversal skills through volunteering

    The Lifelong Learning Platform and the European Volunteer Centre with the support of Cedefop organised a peer learning activity in Brussels, on 22-23 January. The PLA looked at the way validation approaches identify and document soft and/or transversal skills and competences. Using learning outcomes of – mainly but not solely – volunteering activities, participants discussed how to strengthen the conceptual basis of validation and how to further cooperate.
    Around 50 participants from NGOs, European institutions, national governments and research […]

  • LLLWeek18 – Lifelong Learning Culture in the European Parliament

    The 8th edition of the Lifelong Learning Week took place in the European Parliament on 3-7 December 2018. It was a dense week of debates, discussions and reflections upon the LLLP’s theme of the year: Lifelong Learning Culture: A partnership for rethinking education.

    The week kicked-off with a lively LLL Civil Society Forum in the splendid Fondation Universitaire. Civil society organisations active in education and training debated their own role vis-à-vis the latest EU policy, and their contribution […]

  • European perspectives: volunteers and lifelong learning

    David Lopez, President of the Lifelong Learning Platform was asked by “France Volontaires” what volunteering mean for lifelong learning.
    “When it comes to education and lifelong learning, the tension between the acquisition of competences and citizenship education is of particular relevance for the European point of view. Thus, it is crucial to develop a consistent policy on volunteering.”
    Read here is his perspective, in French.

  • Voluntary Services in France, Challenges and Tendencies

    This article was written by David Lopez, President of the LLLP, and originally appeared in the magazine Bundesnetzwerk Bürgerschaftliches Engagement.
    First of all, it is important to clarify different terms: In English volunteering is unique word used for different activities. In France we have two words: Bénévolat and Volontariat. The notion of volontariat is relatively recent. Bénévolat is considered as a not paid activity, freely chosen which is generally organised within a non-profit institution. The better translation in English is volunteerism.
    Volontariat that we […]

  • LLLP Provides Input on European Solidarity Corps

    Two months ago the European Commission launched the idea of creating a European Solidarity Corps by which young people will be able to volunteer across Europe to help respond to crisis situations. The LLLP welcomed the initiative, but together with member organisations, it came up with some ideas how to make sure it works well in reality. In particular, it emphasised on the importance of training and support for volunteers, developing a quality charter and creating synergies with other initiatives, […]

  • Setting up a European Solidarity Corps?

    President Juncker announced in his State of the Union Address before the European Parliament the idea of a European Solidarity Corps with the first 100,000 young Europeans taking part in its activities by 2020. The idea behind the European Solidarity Corps is that Europeans need greater opportunities to express their solidarity, which is a strongly held value throughout European society. Many young people would be happy to volunteer to work for a good cause and in projects where their […]

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