ENGAGEMENT UND ERWERBSARBEIT IN EUROPA - BBE

euter: Volunteering and employment
QualificatiOns and skills = eMplOyability?
It is a known fact that every couple of years, a few
new buzzwords find their way into our vocabulary.
Prime examples are ‚employability‘ or ‚flexicurity‘.
Do skills and qualifications acquired through voluntary
work increase or improve the volunteers‘
‚employability‘, or their entry into the job market?
Should we even consider looking at volunteering
from this perspective?
In actual fact, any form of voluntary work should always
be a relevant additional argument for employing
someone these days; however, the skills and qualifications
acquired at school or university, or through
vocational qualifications or professional experience
and further education must remain the main criteria.
In my opinion, volunteering is no substitute for these;
it can, however, be a useful addition.
Suggestions that the co-operation between the departments
for employment and volunteering associations
should be improved have entered the debate
at the European level. At best, I consider this
as ambivalent, not least because it bears the risk of
confusion with regard to responsibilities and scope.
Departments of employment are plainly tasked with
finding decent jobs for job seekers. Volunteering associations
are tasked with assisting in encouraging
and managing of civic engagement, which must not
become an alternative to paid employment.
Also under debate is the issue of how and whether a
value can be placed on this engagement, i.e. how much
is it worth. Not in terms of intangible values, but in
terms of money, and again, there is some ambivalence.
ciVic engageMent and sOcial inclusiOn
Volunteering obviously plays a vital role in the promotion
of integration and the fight against social exclusion,
on the one hand through the direct involvement
of the excluded or those threatened by social
exclusion; a not inconsiderable 120 million people
in the European Union, according to the EU. On the
other hand, this kind of active involvement can raise
the self-esteem of people living at the edge of society
and give them the feeling of doing something
useful for the community.
Volunteering can pave the way back into society for
these citizens, assuming it is suitably supervised.
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suMMary
To conclude I would like to state the following:
• Civic engagement plays a central role in our society
and reflects European values.
• There must be a clear line between civic engagement
and paid or gainful employment. Volunteering
must not be allowed to undermine
existing employment contracts or endanger
jobs. This was recently confirmed at a meeting
of the European Council for Employment, Social
Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) in
Luxembourg.
• Civic engagement improves personal skills and
qualifications and represents social and labour
market relevant capital.
• The recognition of non-formal and official education
through voluntary work should become
a European and national cause, and civic society
stakeholders should be involved in the conception
and shaping of the relevant political
processes.