A Volunteer Today, an Entrepreneur Tomorrow!

The project “A Volunteer Today, an Entrepreneur Tomorrow!” is aimed at the students of the University of Craiova and aims at involving the students coming from different social and economic environments, at including financially vulnerable students in order to inform them on the long and short-term benefits of volunteering, through thematic workshops and seminars.

The project also aims at increasing the competitiveness of the selected students on the labour market in order to enhance their employability in the near future.

Our organization 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 for Professional Counselling and Orientation; Pirelli, CEZ, ELPRECO, KAUTEX, the Convention of Student Organizations in Craiova.

The objectives of the project are:

• increasing young people’s awareness regarding the benefits brought by volunteering;
• stimulating young people to become volunteers by using informal education;
• creating a starting point for the future cooperation between private companies and NGOs;
• promoting the role of volunteering in broadening the personal career experience in order to increase that person’s employability;
• offering training for 50 young people from the University of Craiova and getting them involved in volunteering 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 into the labour market;
• At least a new long-term partnership established with the local companies.

Regarding the compatibility with the programme “Young People in Action”, our project promotes volunteering as a means of students’ active participation in the community life. This aspect is obviously a means of practice for the European citizenship and values: involvement, empathy, help.

The project also comprises two horizontal activities: promoting the project and its monitoring. These will be completed from the beginning of the preparatory stage to the end of the assessment/dissemination stage. Thus, we shall ensure good visibility for our activity, but also for the financing programme and the financing authority. Through continuous monitoring, we shall have control over the development of each activity in order to promptly intervene in case there is deviation from the objectives and time limits, and also if other potential problems are noticed.

More specifically, the initiative “A Volunteer Today, an Entrepreneur Tomorrow” comprises a five-member team of OSPPEC who designed a plan through which 50 students, who had not done any volunteering 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 entrepreneurship, 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 business plan with the staff responsible for projects in 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 volunteering 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”.

Team:

• Florescu Ştefan-Cristian

• Teişanu Nicolae Florentin

• Lungu Raluca Georgiana

• Belulescu Floriana-Lavinia

• Popescu Mihaela