The e-VOC project aims to offer a new online learning module thereby improving accessibility and quality of training for Volunteer Coordinators on the validation of volunteer competences. To do so, four organisations from four European countries have joined forces to develop the first open and multilingual online training course for Volunteer Coordinators on the validation of nonformal learning competences in the voluntary sector.
Between 12th and 16th December 2016, the four partner organisations of the e-VOC project met in Madrid (Spain) for the first project meeting.
The first day of the meeting began with a warm welcome from Luciano Poyato (President of the Spanish Volunteering Platform) and Mar Amate (Director of the Spanish Volunteering Platform) who congratulated the delegates from the partner organisations for their commitment to improving the quality and accessibility of training for Volunteer Coordinators in Europe.
Working together until spring 2018 the partners will co-design, test and launch the online module for Volunteer Managers. Volunteer Managers that complete the module will be to create learning outcomes for their volunteer programmes with the aim of bringing their volunteers on a formal educational journey aligned with accreditation systems. Volunteers will be able to map their learning from their experiences to the programme learning outcomes and be able to demonstrate active learning. In leveraging Volunteer Managers capacity to instil a love of learning with volunteers, the module will highlight lifelong learning opportunities.
The delegates used the first project meeting to set strong foundations for the work of the partnership. In particular, they worked on the development of the training content, reviewing the work done so far by each partner organisation and sharing feedback and advice to help each other.
The next step will be to finalise the development of the online training content before the second project meeting in Bemmel (The Netherlands), planned for May 2017. During the meeting in Bemmel, the delegates from the partner organisations will prepare for the next project activity, the testing of the online training course with Volunteer Coordinators from Italy and Spain.
This project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, is a joint initiative of: the Spanish Volunteering Platform (Spain), CSVnet (Italy), EDOS Foundation (The Netherlands), and National University of Ireland, Galway and Volunteer Ireland (Ireland).
