Digital technologies for validating young volunteers competences

Background DYVO project contributed to facilitate and innovate recognition and validation of competences acquired through non-formal and informal learning in the field of youth volunteering, with the aim of enhancing young people’s employability and social participation and youth/voluntary organizations’ quality of work. The project overcame some of the obstacles that still hinder the diffusion of validation practices in the voluntary sector: the lack of flexible, easy-to-use instruments; the lack of awareness on the relevance of transversal skills, and on volunteering as an experience of development of those skills; the lack of specific skills in youth workers for guiding validation processes of young volunteers; the lack of a clear framework of learning outcomes of informal learning through volunteering and of the related competences that can be acquired. Objectives The objectives of the strategic partnership were: 1) to develop a new digital, easy-to-use and innovative tool to support the recognition and validation of competences in youth volunteering; 2) to empower young volunteers, youth workers and organizations in the development and exploitation of methods, tools and procedures for validating competences, included the new Europass framework; 3) to elaborate a clear framework of learning outcomes, and related competences, of informal learning through youth volunteering, and a clear methodology of validation; 4) to promote recognition and validation of competences of young volunteers with fewer opportunities. In order to achieve these objectives the project develops, tests and disseminates an innovative model for validating young volunteers’ competences called DYVO Model, composed of 3 Intellectual Outputs. Implementation The project selected and trained two types of participants: young volunteers and youth workers. As for young volunteers, these are the involved groups. - 25 young people aged 18-30 will be involved in IO1 in the phase of testing. They used the DYVO App to validate their competences and provide feedbacks on the App; they took part in local workshops aimed at empowering them on transversal skills, validation and job orientation they received a certificate. JDC in Lithuania involved 7 people with disability They were involved in LTTAs blended mobility online (C1) and Lithuania (C3). - 26 youth workers were involved in IO3 (DYVO Training Package) in the local piloting of training activities on competences, validation and job orientation. They took part in local workshops aimed at empowering them to operate as tutors for guiding young volunteers in the validation process through the DYVO Model. 12 youth workers were involved in LTTAs short-term joint staff training event in Austria (C2). Thank to the active involvement of those two targets (and the participation of 12 evaluators) it was possible to develop effective and high quality outputs. Achievements DYVO produced three main outputs: - DYVO App is IO1 and is the core innovative output of the project; it is a blockchain-based certificate platform for the management of the validation process, whose final version is accessible in five languages: English, French, Italian, German and Lithuanian. The App was developed and tested with a transnational group of young volunteers (included a subgroup of young people with fewer opportunities) tutors and assessors. Within this digital environment all the steps of validation can be easily performed: identify and document acquired competences producing a portfolio, assess and certify them through blockchain technology. E-book on the DYVO Model was IO2 and it contains: a competence framework, that is a set of competences commonly acquired through volunteering experiences; a methodology of validation; a collection of case histories of young volunteers and voluntary organisations to work as role models. DYVO Training Package was IO3, that is a set of innovative training programs for young volunteers, tutors and assessors aimed at empowering them in recognition and validation of transversal skills. The training package was designed and piloted and it is now available as OER.