The second partner meeting for partners of the project VALLEY – Validation System in Lifelong Learning Experiences of Youth Volunteering co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2 – Strategic Partnerships in the field of Youth took place in Palermo on 18th and 19th November, hosted by CESIE.
VALLEY aims to enhance the learning dimension of volunteering work through the development of a new approach to promote volunteering among young people as a resource of personal empowerment and to validate skills and competences developed during their volunteering experience. The project will maximize the transferability of this learning to other dimensions of people’s life to help understand the global benefits of volunteering in terms of social integration and (re)engagement, civic participation, mobility opportunities, etc.
During the partnership meeting, partners reviewed the project progress and outcomes achieved so far. This included an in-depth review of the final results from the online survey launched in July 2015 to volunteering organisations and volunteers and the findings from the national desk research and interviews with key stakeholders in the volunteering sector carried out in each partner country; Germany, Austria, Italy, Romania, UK and France.
Partners also worked on finalising the competency framework for youth volunteering within the VALLEY context that is based on the application of the LEVEL5 validation methodology and validation system for competences. Good practice methods and tools for assessing the competences of young people were also shared among the partnership.
An important focus was given to the planning of the five day VALLEY training course which is part of the blended learning course for 18 participants made up of volunteer coordinators, facilitators, trainers from the partner organisations. The training course targeted at professionals in the volunteering sector aims to raise awareness on the topic of evidencing and validating informal learning in volunteering activities as a fundamental added value for the volunteers. It will support the participants to set up learning projects with the young volunteers during the VALLEY project and apply the LEVEL5 methodology against the developed reference systems in their specific context with their volunteers.
The next steps in the VALLEY project will be dedicated to the competency framework for VALLEY and the development of the training curriculum and delivery of the training course to be held in April 2016 in Timisoara, Romania hosted by APOWER.
The next partnership meeting will take place in Glasgow, UK hosted by BEMIS in the autumn of 2016.
The VALLEY partnership is made up of 6 partners from 6 different European countries which include; BUPNET (Germany – Coordinator), Die Berater (Austria), CESIE (Italy), APOWER (Romania), BEMIS (UK) and EUROCIRCLE (France).
More information about the VALLEY project can be found at: www.valley-eu.org or for further information, please contact: rosina.ndukwe@cesie.org.
