Developing volunteering as a part of individual learning path

<< Background >>In 2024, Tartu (EE), Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut (AU), and Bodø (NO) hold the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) title, fostering culture-driven development across education, entrepreneurship, and communities. Thousands of people, including educational institutions, businesses, and NGOs, contribute to these broader ECoC goals.This project connected cultural capitals with learning communities, building strong volunteer networks, skilled coordinators, and tools to validate voluntary work as part of education. It promotes informal, flexible learning through voluntary work, benefiting diverse groups of people.By developing training materials, guidelines, and an e-assessment tool, the project empowered volunteer coordinators and team leaders as well as organisations that are connected with volunteering. Thus the project bridged gaps between volunteering, informal and formal education, while providing sustainable solutions for European-level adoption.<< Objectives >>The project's overall aim was to promote voluntary work as a flexible, informal, and individual learning opportunity for adults by creating prerequisites for volunteering and facilitating the transfer of skills and knowledge acquired through volunteering to education and career development.Specifically, the project objectives were:- Establishing capable learning communities in project areas that unite culture, education, and volunteering.- Developing competent volunteer leaders and well-trained volunteer coordinators who actively engaged and mobilized volunteer communities in the project areas.- Implementing an e-assessment application to assess and validate voluntary work within formal education.- Ensuring that voluntary work was recognized as a valuable part of an individual's learning path.<< Implementation >>The project implemented following activities:1) Building learning communities included promotion of volunteering, networking cooperation to engage people to short-term volunteering 2) Organising the seminar to kick-off the volunteer coordinators and team-leaders material development3) Developing volunteer coordinators training materials incl. curriculum and content creation for the Coordinator Handbook. The materials were translated and edited (4 languages) and used during the training sessions in 3 countries to improve management skills needed for efficient coordination.4) Developing team-leader manual incl creating the content to the guide, editing and translation (4 languages) to support effective volunteer management.5) Organising the seminar for assessment methods6) Micro-volunteering assessment methodology was developed. 7) Creating the application to assess and recognise voluntary work, incl programming back-end database and user interface. The app was tested and used as a digital tool for recognition and validation skills obtained during voluntary work. 8) Launch & dissemination of the e-application to user groups and stakeholders.9) Project management and coordination, quality evaluation and reporting. << Results >>Results achieved:1)Established capable learning communities in 3 countries, involving 668 volunteers with diverse backgrounds. 2) Enhanced competence of coordinators and team leaders: - quality training materials for volunteer coordinators (1 credit) in EN, EST, NO, and GE. For better user experience it was designed in writable PDF.(EN, EST, NO).- Pilot training for coordinators (81 beneficiaries). Additional optional course launched in VOCO. - Developed Team Leader Guidelines (4 languages). For better user experience it was designed in writable PDF.(EN, EST, NO). Additionally 230 copies (EE) printed and distributed. - Shared and disseminated the materials to over 577 potential users and reached 400+ organisations. -3) Validation tool Development of the assessment methodology that included volunteer self-assessment and team leader evaluation, forming the basis for the e-application.- Created, developed, tested, and launched the e-application in four languages (EN, EST, NO, GE) for mobile and desktop use. The app called recognition tool has been used by 324 unique users. - The project results and resources and international target groups. Dissemination events included 208 volunteers and stakeholders.