ENGAGEMENT UND ERWERBSARBEIT IN EUROPA - BBE

wölfl: greeting
that I wholly support this approach, without any ifs and
buts. However, I am also fully aware of the fact that we
may not be able to continue to subscribe to this ethos in
the near future. In my view, the abolishment of compulsory
civilian service (as an alternative to compulsory military
service) and the introduction of a federal volunteer
service are already the first signs of a future tendency to
do so. Although it was then well-known that it was illegal
to fill a job vacancy with someone doing their compulsory
civilian service, besides the fact that they were hardly
likely to have the respective qualifications, today this occasionally
raises the following question: what is the extent
of the vacancies that now exist due to the abolition
of compulsory civilian service?
You are all well aware that there are two sides to the
current demographic development: on the one hand,
increased life expectancy, on the other a declining
birth rate. In light of this, I do wonder whether we will
be able to fill all full-time jobs with paid employees 20
or 30 years from now, or whether we will be forced to
also rely on civic volunteering to do so. Please, don‘t
get me wrong: I am not advocating the ‚exploitation‘
of our citizens to the advantage of third parties; I am
talking about the fact that active social involvement
adds to the quality of volunteers‘ lives.
I also wonder about this issue when I read about the financial
and banking crisis and the alleged or factual drawbacks
of globalisation in the daily papers. Banking crises
almost inevitably lead to a drastic fall in tax revenue, accompanied
by significant increases in government spending.
In future, public budgets will no longer be able to
cover what they still can today, not by a long shot.
And finally: remember that the demands we are expected
to meet in our daily working lives continue to rise
and some of our citizens are simply not able to rise to
these challenges. ‚If, in future, the vast majority of the
population is either not yet in gainful employment, or
no longer employed, or has no prospects of ever being
so again, then paid employment can no longer be considered
a raison d‘être, or our sole purpose in life. ...everyone
needs a job. The feeling of being needed is more important
than earning money. The act of doing something
with a purpose, something that benefits the community,
deserves social recognition.‘ (Horst W. Opaschowski).
It will be one of the tasks of our volunteering policy to
show those concerned the best way to achieve this.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me finish by saying a few
words on the government‘s role in all this. Its task is
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clear and unequivocal: it must create the requisite
framework conditions to allow volunteering to continue
today, tomorrow and even in the more distant
future, from employment law to tax regulations,
from civil law to social security legislation.
What are the activities of the Free State of Bavaria
in this context? Ladies and Gentlemen, volunteering
has long been a focus of the Bavarian social and social
security policy. The progress we have made over
the past few years in this respect is remarkable indeed,
we have no reason for false modesty.
Our latest achievement is the recently introduced Bavarian
‚Ehrenamtskarte‘, a ‚volunteer pass‘. It is just
one element of the culture of recognition successfully
practiced in Bavaria. Anyone engaged in voluntary
work for a certain amount of time over longer periods
is issued with a ‚volunteer pass‘. This entitles the holder
to certain material benefits in all local communities
in Bavaria that are participating in the project.
We are particularly proud of the ‚Ehrenamtsnachweis
Bayern‘, the ‚Bavarian volunteering accreditation
scheme‘, which leads me back to the topic of your
conference. The Bavarian volunteering accreditation
scheme not only gives details of any involvement in
voluntary or charitable work, but also of the skills acquired
through this involvement. This enables the holder
to include their volunteering accreditation in their
CV when applying for a vacancy. If there are several
applicants with equal professional qualifications, employers
may well prefer applicants who have previously
engaged in some form of voluntary work. So-called
secondary skills, such as dedication to the job, organisational
talent, reliability and so on are all typical for
volunteers and are equally important in a paid career.
Potential volunteers do not always know who to turn
to to offer their services. To ensure that this interest
does not go unheeded, we are in the process of establishing
a network of volunteering agencies and
‚co-ordination departments for civic volunteering
activities‘ in Bavaria for interested citizens to turn to
for more information.
Ladies and Gentlemen, that is all I have to say. A
welcome speech may also come to a rather abrupt
ending, provided this fact has been announced in
advance. I hope that you will hear some interesting
lectures, have many stimulating discussions, and I
generally wish you all the best.