MOVE – Mutual recognition of skills and competences learned through volunteering – towards a European debate

The MOVE project focus on mutual recognition of skills and competences learned through volunteering amongst different stakeholders from the voluntary sector, business, formal education and government as well as accreditation bodies. It brings together a variety of stakeholders with their tools and experiences in the field of identifying, accessing and recognizing these skills.

Objectives:

The project was aimed at bringing together volunteer organisations, the business sector, governmental players, stakeholders and experts to present good practices on how to identify, assess and validate learning outcomes through volunteering. The partners discussed different perspectives of the stakeholders concerning mutual recognition and provided an overview of good practices in the field of mutual recognition of skills, competences and knowledge acquired through volunteering. One of the final outcomes was reinforced networking amongst different stakeholders to further develop the results and outcomes of the seminar.

Main activities and outputs:

The core of MOVE was the three day conference bringing together 60 experts and practitioners in the field of providing a space for the presentation of good practices, the identification of barriers that hinder collaboration of the different stakeholders and discussion on common standards. The MOVE Conference took place at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), in Brussels on the 23rd- 24th May 2007.

The participants debated the possibility to develop a “European Volunteer Pass”, a portfolio of skills and competences learned through volunteering that could contribute to the current work of the European institutions on the recognition on non-formal learning and the European Qualification Framework.

The results and the experience of the seminar led to the creation of a European Thematic Network that takes further the debate and work on implementation iof the results.

Products:

• Conference programme
• Conference presentations
• FINAL REPORT

Partners:

• The European Volunteer Centre (CEV), Europe (project coordination)
• The European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), Europe;
• Association of Voluntary Service Organisations (AVSO), Europe;
• INBAS-Sozialforschung GmbH, Germany;
• Deutscher Caritasverband e.V., Germany;
• Verbund Freiwilligen-Zentren (Caritas Volunteer Centre Network), Germany;
• Bundesnetzwerk Bürgerschaftliches Engagement (Federal Network for Civic Engagement), Germany;
• ARBES – Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bürgerschaftliches Engagement und Seniorengenossenschaften (Network for senior citizen’s civic engagement), Germany;
• Vlaams Steunpunt Vrijwillerswerk (The Flemish Volunteer Development Agency), Belgium;
• Önkentes Központ Alapitvany ÖKA (National Volunteer Centre), Hungary;
• SPES – Centro di Servizio per il Volontariato del Lazio (Lazio Regional Vounteer Development Agency), Italy;
• MOVISIE (The Netherlands’ Centre for Social Devlopment), Netherlands;
• Federació Catalana del Voluntariat Social (Catalan Federation for Social Volunteering), Spain;
• Ring Oesterreichischer Bildungswerke (Austrian network of adult education institutes), Austria;
• Unisversity of Liverpool, UK;
• Business In The Community (BITC), UK;
• Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR), UK;
• National Volunteer Center, Poland.