European Voluntary Year, pragmatism is an imperative

After an agenda full of events and debates, the European Year of Voluntary Activities (2011) achieves its first concrete result: the Communication on EU Policies and Volunteering: Recognising and Promoting Cross-border Voluntary Activities in the EU. In this cold definition, typical of every formal European document, we find an achievable and concrete suggestion that the European association world had been waiting for a long time. The Communication is about the way to formally recognise the skills gained through volunteering activities. This document is particularly interesting because through it the Commission recognises the importance not only of the volunteering activities in general, but also of the specific role played by volunteers in determined areas, such as the field of humanitarian aid work and that “of health/welfare, in particular with regard to the ageing society”. But, according to the Commission, this commitment should lead to the recognition and certification of the skills gained by volunteers. The Commission, indeed, states that “recognising volunteering as a form of learning is therefore a priority of EU action in education and training”. This is the reason why it is now working on a proposal for a Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning that includes the volunteering dimension. On a practical level, voluntary work experiences and skills acquired through volunteering can be displayed in the Europass documents and will be integrated into the future “European Skills Passport”. Thus, slowly but constantly, the Commission follows the way paved by the rapid changes affecting the labour market. Indeed Linkedin, a professional networking site, has recently added the reference “voluntary work experiences”. This decision reflects a trend started in the US, where companies’ Human Resources directors openly state that voluntary work experiences may contribute to the choice of a candidate for a job. Such experiences will not have to be considered anymore, maybe for a sort of “modesty”, as personal questions but as an actual occasion of vocational training. Moreover, it is possible that voluntary activities are also assessed from an “ethical” point of view. If, indeed, it is true that the current global economic crisis has been caused by unscrupulous managers, the best antibodies for the future could be competent professionals involved also in the social sector.