Volunteering = Surely Employed
Activity organized by: The Student Organisation of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Craiova, OSPPEC.
The number of the unemployed aged between 25-74 represents 72.1% of the total number of the unemployed estimated for June 2011. Romania had, in the first semester, a young people unemployment rate of 19.6%, ranking the 13th in the EU, the European Union average being 18.3%, according to the Eurostat data. The Eurostat data shows that 20.6% of the young Romanian men were unemployed in January-March, compared to 18.6% in 2008. In the case of women, the rate increased from 17.5% in the first three months of last year to 18% in 2009.
Our project tries to prevent the negative aspects related to the failure to get employed or to find an appropriate job, through the participation of young people in different activities which will enlarge their expertise.
Thus, the objectives of this project are:
- O1 – increasing young people’s awareness regarding the benefits brought by voluntary work;
- O2 – stimulating young people to become volunteers by using informal education;
- O3 – creating a starting point for the future cooperation between private companies and NGOs;
- O4 – promoting the role of voluntary work in broadening the personal career experience in order to enhance employability;
- O5 – providing training for 50 young people from the University of Craiova and getting them involved in voluntary activities.
More specifically, the following will be achieved through the project activities:
- A group of 50 volunteers who get actively involved in the activities of the respective associations;
- 50 young people who will be better trained for integration to the labour market;
- At least a new long-term partnership established with the local companies.
The project “Volunteering = Surely Employed” is targeted at young people in the University of Craiova and it aims to attract young people from different social and economic environments, including financially vulnerable young people in order to inform them about the short and long-term benefits of volunteering, through workshops and thematic seminars. The project also aims at increasing competitiveness on the labour market in the case of the selected young people, in order enhance their employability in the near future.
Our association benefits from the support of serious local partners who will be an active part during the project development: the University of Craiova through the Centre of Professional Counselling and Orientation; Pirelli, CEZ, ELPRECO, the Convention of Student Organizations in Craiova. The implementation team within the Association of the Regional Volunteering Centre also participated in different projects, coming into contact with the present partners, having already developed a good communication relationship among the involved parties. Thus, a previous meeting was held with the present partners in the project, discussing and sharing everybody’s rights and responsibilities in view to implement the project “Volunteering = Surely Employed”.
The project comprises 4 standard stages, which further divide into several activities:
- During the employment period, which will last for a month, the following activities will be developed: * Working sessions with the project team and the partners in order to set the details referring to the general tasks which were already assigned; * Design of advertising materials for the project: posters, flyers, leaflets, T-shirts, anoraks, ballpoint pens, paper cases; * The initial promotion of the project in the local press and on the Internet.
- During the two-month implementation stage, we will achieve the following: *A recruitment campaign for the participants – we will select 50 young people who did not previously take part in voluntary activities; * Volunteering internships for the participants; * Design of the brochure “Steps towards a Successful Career through Volunteering”; * Training courses, presentations and thematic workshops by the partner companies.
- During the assessment/dissemination stage, the activities which are to be carried out in a month and a half are the following:* Assessing the participants: simulating a job interview with the Human Resources departments of the partner companies; * Conducting the campaign for the promotion of volunteering – as a means to assess participants; * Design the brochure “Steps towards a Successful Career through Volunteering” – as a means of additional dissemination;
- The last stage is reporting. During the 1 1/2 months, all the documents necessary to report to the sponsor will be drafted.
The project also comprises two horizontal activities: promoting and monitoring the project. These will be developed from the beginning of the preparation stage to the end of the assessment/dissemination stage. Thus, shall will ensure a good visibility of our activity, and also of the financing programme, and of the financing authority. By continuous monitoring, we shall control the development of each activity in order to promptly intervene in case there is deviation from objectives and time limits, and also in case other potential problems are noticed.
More specifically, the initiative “Volunteering = Surely Employed” comprises a five-member team of OSPPEC who designed a plan through which 50 students, who had not done any voluntary work before and considered this activity a waste of time, will be included in the local activities of our association and of the partner associations, and will also participate in the courses organized by the partner companies in relation to volunteering and the labour market: business communication, tips for a good interview, writing a good CV, etc. The courses will end by assessing the skills achieved by participants by simulating a job interview with the Human Resources staff of the partner companies.
At the end of the training, it is hoped that the students will have changed their attitude and will be eager to tell other people of their age about the importance of getting involved in voluntary activities, by conducting the volunteering promotion campaign in the University of Craiova campus and in the city high schools.
As a further dissemination means, with the help of the project team, the participants will share their training experience in a brochure entitled “Steps towards a Successful Career through Volunteering”.
