After more than 20 years of volunteering opportunities under the former “European Voluntary Service” and during the European Solidarity Corps programme we know (and research tends to confirm) participating in voluntary/solidarity projects indeed improves the employability and entrepreneurial competencies of young people, besides they feel more attracted to be employed and/or develop projects connected with social welfare.
The Youth@Work: “Connecting the Dots: Employability through European Solidarity Corps” aims to ´connect the dots´ between competencies acquired through volunteering (ESC) -focusing on those enhancing employability – and social entrepreneurship topics.
The forum will offer an exchange of practices and know-how, and inspire sharing and learning across employability and social entrepreneurship sectors, therefore catalysing further cooperation and ultimately contributing to a stronger and more inclusive society.
We want to bring together different stakeholders involved in the management and support of ESC projects (especially, project managers, volunteers mentors, trainers involved at the Training and Evaluation cycle of the programme, and young people who have run solidarity projects) and those concerned about the employability of young people (policymakers, researchers, scholars, employment agencies, human resources consulting companies, etc) to further build a common approach and strategy that can help and support to reinforce the importance of employability skills development through volunteering projects and/or social entrepreneurship thanks to solidarity projects.
Objectives of the project
To connect volunteering and solidarity with employment and entrepreneurship through competence awareness and social entrepreneurship development through European Solidarity Corps projects.
To exchange good practices, experiences and know-how on improving employability and social entrepreneurship competencies of young people.
To foster employability skills among young people through mentoring volunteers and the training and evaluation cycle of the European Solidarity Corps programme.
To increase competencies, cooperation and networking among organisations in order to foster employability skills and social entrepreneurship.
More information at: youthatworkpartnership.org