The project focuses on empowerment of low-skilled adult learners, volunteers engaged in activities in voluntary organisations, which are understood as all those non-profit organisations that engage volunteers and provide voluntary services of any kind.More and more people engage into voluntary work of various kind on formal and informal basis. Importance of non-profit org. providing voluntary services (associations, societies, foundations, churches) is increasing steadily. In 2015 (Eurostat last avail.), the involvement in informal voluntary activities in the EU-28 was slightly higher than in formal (organised) voluntary activities (22.2 % versus 19.3 %). Participation in partner countries: IT(12 formal; 11,2 informal), PL(13,8; 50,6), ES (10,7; 10,6), DE (28,6; 11,4); BE (20,4; 20,8). In all countries there are strong organisations that belong to networks, but there are also many small that operate locally/regionally and struggle to survive. Volunteers help elder, sick, immigrants, environment, but they also do work that helps keeping organisations alive. In this aspect, it would be beneficial for them to take advantage of EU funds. If they had strong digital, intercultural and initiative taking and entrepreneurship skills with specific knowledge on EU projects writing and managing, it would not only bring positive effects to their lives but also to organisations they voluntary for. Partners conducted own research about participation of voluntary organisations in EU projects and trainings available for volunteers. Results show that the reason “why” they don’t participate is mostly that volunteers are not trained in this area, they are not aware of such opportunities, they don't have international contacts or they don't have competences to write high quality EU funded project. Analysis of approved projects show, that there are no or little written by volunteers. As for the trainings, organisations can't afford it, especially if from their point of view, it is less urgent. If they have to choose accounting vs. how to prepare EU project, the first will be chosen, because it is a requirement while the second is only an option. As it is getting more difficult for small associations to raise money, this sector in particular could benefit from EU funded programs but often there is no one, who would know how to prepare projects. The objectives are:- to improve and extend the supply of high quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of volunteers, especially those that are low-skilled by enhancing their knowledge and skills in issues related to EU projects development and management with a focus on developing effective open and innovative education in the digital area through the use of ICT supporting key competences - increase inter-regional and transnational cooperation and develop and reinforce European networks especially of those voluntary organisations that are not part of EVS/ESC-increase the capacity of voluntary organisations to operate transnationally-develop digital learning materials and tools in particular OER and support the effective use of digital technologies in education and training- to disseminate widely the results in order to reach as many as possible volunteers and voluntary organisations throughout European Union. Target group are low-skilled adults who work as volunteers of those voluntary organisations that are not part of EVS, that operate in small communities, work on local and regional levels and are not aware of possibilities that EU funded projects could bring them. The project is centred among development of two main Intellectual Outputs: - 1 OER for volunteers including practical Toolbox on various aspects of cooperation within EU projects (including 1-Internationalisation for voluntary organisations, 2- Dissemination and exploitation of results, 3-Intercultural communication in transnational work, 4-quality in EU projects, 5-ICT tools for the implementation and management of European projects). OER will include theoretical part and practical tools for work on planning, design and management of EU projects.- 1 e-catalogue of good practices in the field of EU projects implementation by voluntary organisations with possibility of interactive exchange of good practices for these organisations. The project is likely to have a sustainable impact within and beyond the project lifetime on the low-skilled adults who work as volunteers, on voluntary organisations, adult education providers, participants and participating organisations. As result of the project low-skilled adult volunteers will upgrade their competences in preparing and managing European projects, enhance their digital skills, intercultural competence and sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. Voluntary organisations will be able to strengthen their position in the region, gain new sources of funding, run more effective operations and establish new, international networks.

"<< Objectives >>The objective is to RESPOND TO A EUROPEAN NEED identified in 2011 in the ""Policy Agenda for Volunteering in Europe"", confirmed in 2016 by CEDEFOP and in 2019 by the European Association for Adult Education, which is THE NEED TO standardise the results of the tools for the validation of non-formal and informal learning and to adopt clear and transparent quality standards so that the results of the validation process are trusted by external parties and stakeholders.<< Implementation >>We will define the ""European Quality Standards in the Validation of the Learning acquired through Volunteering"" based on the results of the Public Consultation that we will organise across the EU.We will produce and disseminate across the EU a Manual in 6 languages to make it easier for the target groups to adopt these standards.We will organise a transnational testing to validate the Manual with the target groups and to identify which elements need improvement, and we will improve it.<< Results >>The main result of the project will be the Manual ""European Quality Standards in the Validation of the Learning acquired through Volunteering"" in 6 languages with detailed instructions and support tools so that any interested organisation can adopt these quality standards."

The importance of youth volunteering for social inclusion and active citizenship is evidenced in the EU (Volunteering in the European Union, GHK 2010). Furthermore, by participating in voluntary activities, young people acquire new knowledge, skills and competences, that support their personal development and employability. Thus conclude studies such as ‘Voluntary Action in 2018’ (PVE) and ‘Intergenerational volunteering and solidarity’ (Eurobarometer 2011), among others.The EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 encourages Member States to promote the participation of young people in voluntary activities and highlights the importance of promoting good practices. Most European, national and regional programmes to support youth volunteering include, as an objective, the promotion of good practices but they do not define what is a ‘good practice’ or establish objective criteria for their identification. This is the conclusion from the study carried out by the partners of this project, after reviewing youth volunteering support programmes in 15 countries.Youth volunteering remains one of the few sectors without European Quality Standards. The definition of such Standards would facilitate the identification, promotion and development of good practices in all relevant areas of young volunteering and would therefore significantly contribute to the objectives of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027.In this context, in order to respond to this European need, this project aims to define and disseminate across the EU the first European Quality Standards in Youth Volunteering.The first project activity will be to carry out a consultation in all EU countries in order to identify the most commonly used quality standards in the youth volunteering sector in each country. Based on the consultation results, the first version of the European Quality Standards in Youth Volunteering will be defined. Subsequently, in order to assess how the recently defined European Quality Standards in Youth Volunteering are understood and accepted within the European youth voluntary sector, the project partners will carry out a transnational testing. In order to motivate the participation of a large number of voluntary organisations across the EU, the testing will be organised as an award or contest: European Youth Volunteering Award. The jury will apply, for the first time, the European Quality Standards in Youth Volunteering to assess the submitted projects and select the winner. Once finished the transnational testing, and based on the feedback from the testers, the project partners will define the necessary improvements to be implemented on the European Quality Standards in Youth Volunteering.The definition and dissemination across the EU of the first European Quality Standards in Youth Volunteering will have a huge impact because:- it will contribute to improving the quality of the youth volunteering activities and therefore, the participation of young people in voluntary activities, promoting the EU civic life and youth initiative;- it will improve the capacities of people working in the youth field to develop quality activities;- it will quantitative and qualitative increase the offer of innovative resources for youth workers in the EU;- it will facilitate the selection, promotion and development of good practices in all relevant areas of youth volunteering;- it will contribute to the objectives of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027, particularly to the objective of promoting the participation of young people in voluntary activities and promoting good practices.This project will be developed and implemented by a transnational and transectorial partnership composed by voluntary organisation and quality experts from seven countries of the EU.

"<< Background >>The VoW project ""Volunteering for a sustainable World! Increasing volunteering skills for global sustainability through experience in the Fair Trade sector"" focuses on how to prepare European citizens to deal actively, with more knowledge and skills, relevant aspects of the global environmental crisis the planet is facing. And for this reason, it addresses that vast sensitive area that is volunteering, improving its ability to be a co-protagonist of actions that contribute to spreading values, choices and behaviors that, now more than ever, must become the patrimony of all. At the heart of the commitment to global sustainability, and so also in fair trade (Fair Trade), there is a key factor: the person, the citizen, of any age and condition, who chooses to act responsibly, to be a protagonist, changing his lifestyle and becoming a promoter in his community of ethical values and practices, in solidarity. By far, volunteering in Europe has a strong collective impact in all areas in which it operates, on average involving millions of citizens, involving between 12% and over 30% of the population over 16 (Eurostat 2019). The Vow project focuses on them, on people who already engage time and energy as volunteers, or who could do so and meets specific needs: -Volunteers already active in fair trade, often senior, who are generally already very motivated, but little prepared for the global changes in progress, and skills to dialogue with the new generations; -Young people, driven by the desire to change the world as protagonists, who often do not know these forms of volunteering for sustainable economies, and the opportunities that it can offer, so closely linked to current global issues, but also to offer future professional spaces;-Adult and senior citizens motivated to volunteer, who have no information to be able to also consider this opportunity;-Voluntary organizations and their volunteers who work in other fields, and who - informed/trained - can act as a means - to become ""ambassadors"" - to disseminate behaviours and choices in support of policies and general practices of sustainability.VoW also responds to the needs of managers, trainers and managers of volunteers (often volunteers themselves): VoW wants to support them to strengthen their skills and skills in recruiting, welcome, manage and above all train volunteers to address the issues of the sustainable economy, and be able to be more competent for their organizations themselves.<< Objectives >>VoW, thanks to the decades of experience in the world of Fair Trade organisations, offers an integrated path to European challenges, well outlined by the Green Deal of the Commission, promoting knowledge, training and practical support practices towards ""sustainable economy"" (and circular) and responsible consumption, fundamental elements without which effective responses to the environmental crisis could not be given.Within this framework, the VoW project aims to:- To help citizens understand global change and implement virtuous behaviour by providing up-to-date and integrated knowledge of the fair trade system;-Improve the practical knowledge and content to be transmitted to operators, volunteers and citizens on the sustainable economy, networking the knowledge, experiences and practices of organisations operating in this field;-To enable more and more people to be protagonists, active for a sustainable future, strengthening the conditions for volunteering, in fair trade or other sensitive organisations;-Innovate the overall proposal for volunteers in fair trade, experimenting with new forms of volunteering, even involving more the new generations.<< Implementation >>In 32 months, with 8 partners from 6 European countries (4 fair trade organisations, 1 university, 1 national volunteer centre, 1 training research centre, 1 European communication and promotion network) will involve: - 32 experienced partners' operators;- 40 trainers and other volunteers;- 20 managers and managers of other voluntary organisations;- 180 volunteers, new or already active, even with fewer opportunities, taking part in experimental training and information courses;- 20 first generation immigrants or asylum seekers, who will be involved in training trials and placement in voluntary services;- 80 students or schools may also be included, which will be involved by linking VoW experiments to other local programmes;- 30 among operators of the associated partners and other stakeholders for research, accompaniment in promotional activities on the territories and for the practical evaluation of the results.It will be developed through 5 main Work Packages: 1) A new framework of competences of volunteering for the sustainable economy2) Recruitment and reception of volunteers for a sustainable economy3) Training the trainer of sustainable economies4) Testing and validation of courses for volunteers on sustainable economic activities5) From fair trade to civil society and citizenship: voluntary ambassadors of sustainability pathsSupported by 4 international trainings (three for trainers/staff, one for volunteer learners), 6 project meetings and 7 main results multiplier events.<< Results >>VoW plans to reach in 32 months 3 Innovative results (R), to foster the growth of skills of the world of volunteering on the issues of the sustainable economy, and increase the opportunities for active participation of European citizens in activism, especially in fair trade organisations, in a context of better ability to recruit, train and value volunteers:R1) CODE of skills and recruitment models for sustainable economy volunteers. It is the result of research, broad and innovative in this field, to define and organize the skills of the volunteer (which includes insights on knowledge about the sustainable economy), and to structure a subsequent model of recruitment and reception: the definition of the needs and expectations of the citizen who wants to commit himself, to the creation of information tools, selective and motivational.R2) GUIDELINES for the training of sustainable economy volunteers and their trainers: creation of a new overall training plan for volunteers in the main roles. And parallel Guidelines for the training of volunteer trainers.R3) The Sustainable Volunteer: TOOLKIT for organizations and volunteers on skills and paths of sustainable economy development. Offer to every volunteer sector the useful information to structure choices and ways of applying sustainability, in organizations, on how and where to learn about this topic and how to train their volunteers to become ""ambassadors"" of sustainability in their own community.Everyone will be able to access and use the tools produced, which will be available in English and in the languages of the countries involved, free online up to 24 months after the project deadline. At the end of VoW, the conservative estimate is that no less than 380 people, of the categories mentioned above, participated, but that the benefit, thanks to the national and European networks in which the partners are included, can reach at least another 200 fair trade practitioners and trainers, and some thousands of volunteers in organizations of different sectors, ready to launch information and training trials in other European countries.In the medium to long term, the results will offer:•For the fair trade new standards of skills and training processes;•e-learning modules, sustainable economy and its practices; made accessible and used by any organisation;•The strengthening of the main network of sustainable economy, recognized by the EU as ""Key action"" for the 12th SDGs ""Responsible Consumption and Production"", able to act simultaneously both as an economic/business model, that as an activator of social action and volunteering.•The increase of volunteers and active citizens on sustainable development issues; and trainers to support motivational growth and skills of volunteers already active in fair trade and beyond."

How can we evaluate competences such as empathy, flexibility, and problem solving? How can we develop them? How can we make them visible in the interest of job recruiters, employers, trainers, and teachers?LEVER UP provides a model, procedures, and a wide set of tools for identifying and valuing the transversal competencies of the individuals, and that are able to show that the informal contexts, such as volunteering, can be a melting pot of practice and learning for people. It defines a framework for individuals to validate their prior learning, as well as to nurture and to empower their soft skills for the future. It also outlines a governance model for the validation service with common policies to ensure equal quality standards and mutual recognition across Europe, yet sustaining the national peculiarities. Exploiting the legacy of the previous Erasmus+ LEVER project (2014-16), LEVER UP sets the basics for a 360-degree service, in other words, a validation system shareable by multiple European countries and supporting all the aspects for a continuing service over time. As LEVER UP deals with soft and transversal competences and it aims at giving them visibility to increase employability, social responsibility and mobility, the competence framework played a key role for their valorisation in full transparency and transferability among VET, Volunteering and labour market. Various stakeholders may have different perspectives, yet they belong to the same socio-educational and economic context where individuals are the actual competence carriers in a lifelong, life-wide learning system. The learning outcome based approach and the alignment with the main EU references such as EQF made the LEVER UP frame more readable, portable, and consistent with the credits system approach (ECVET) and EU mobility tools such as EUROPASS. Nonetheless, the debate on how the soft and transversal competencies relate to the National Qualification Frameworks and can be valued in job matching platforms such as EURES is still open and in progress. The main target groups of the project were volunteers, voluntary service organisations and their staff, employers, job recruiters and employees, training providers, schools, teachers and trainers, certification bodies, labour policy makers, young people, students and families, and all citizens. For VET, competence validation means easier access, higher qualification, and possibilities for exemption of (part of) a VET-path. For companies, it means to provide profit and non-profit organisations with an effective way to improve transversal competences that may influence personal and business performances. For volunteering, giving visibility to the competencies acquired means to foster social skills, social contribution and citizenship as chances of self-empowerment as well as a way to increase the quality of volunteering.The project designed and implemented:-A model, i.e. a set of 15 transversal competences, described according to EU frameworks standards, and a multiple step validation process;-A toolkit, i.e. a set of 36 tools for LEVER UP candidates, assessors, tutors and trainers, released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 License and available online in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, and Dutch;-A validation service, with clear roles and responsibilities at local, national, and international level;-A training service, i.e. an e-learning program releasing digital credentials (Open Badges) for future LEVER UP assessors, tutors, and trainers;-A digital space, i.e. the LEVER UP Webtool, a web application for service centres to manage the validation of assessors, tutors, and candidates, and the e-learning platform, with training contents and the features for releasing the Open Badges;-A governance model, outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding defining how to join the LEVER UP system within common policies that make it work transparently at local, national and international level. LEVER UP approach and its outputs were tested in pilots and other activities. In 2019, about 300 people were involved in the training and about 600 candidates went through the competence validation process all over Europe.About dissemination, LEVER UP reached more than 340 people with its 3 sets of multiplier events. The project was also selected as good practice in relevant international events such as the 3rd VPL Biennale (Berlin, May 2019), the ECVET Annual Forum (Rotterdam, June 2019), the 1st Validation Festival (Brussels, June 2018), and EQF Advisory Group Peer Learning Activity (Brussels, January 2019). There, it presented the approach and the results, enlarging its audience to other EU and non-EU countries. LEVER UP organised the final conference in Brussels in November 2019, jointly with the CEV Autumn Volunteering Congress. It was the last official event for the project to continue and nurture the debate at the presence of highly representative stakeholders and EU policy makers.