History
European Voluntary Service is a program that falls under Action 2 of the European Union’s Youth in Action Program. EVS “became a fully-fl edged Community action program in 1998, enabling young people to participate as volunteers in social, cultural and environmental activities of benefi t to the local community” (CEC, 2001a, p. 64).
The voluntary service is unpaid, non-profi t and full-time during a given period. Projects can take place in a variety of areas: culture, youth, sports, social care, cultural heritage, arts, civil protection, environment, development cooperation, etc., and can be carried out individually or in groups.
7,100 young people participated in EVS in 1996-1999 and about 30,000 young volunteers have participated in EVS between
1. “Developing Coping Abilities in Intercultural Contexts” (COPE Project) was a small-scale empirical study fi nancially supported by the International Offi ce of the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, in Denmark, and conducted by J. Lau, X. Nguyen, K. Procter, and O. Skrypnyk under the supervision of Dr.
M. Milana.
2000-2006. With time, EVS has shifted its aims from targeting young people from socially vulnerable and excluded groups to a more inclusive approach. Within the 19–30-age range, EVS volunteers are either out of the formal education system or taking a break before they proceed with their next step (formal education or labour market).
As previously mentioned, “EVS is a ‘learning service’” (EC, 2007, p. 61). Learning elements consist of: a mutually2 agreed upon defi nition of expected learning outcomes, processes and methods; a certifi cation of acquired competences; the volunteer’s participation in EVS’ training cycle, including task-related, linguistic and personal support; as well as a crisis prevention and management mechanism (ibid.). Among EVS principles related to learning are the non-formal educational and intercultural learning dimensions. As extracted from an offi cial EVS certifi cate of completion awarded to an EVS volunteer3, declared learning opportunities are: broadening a volunteer’s horizons, familiarising them with a different social and cultural environment, developing self-confi dence, increasing their independence and maturity, acquiring / improving practical skills / language skills, learning about taking responsibility, and working in a team.
Volunteering & Learning
Through contact with EVS volunteers4 it became apparent that ir-respective of sometimes serious problems with offi cial arrangements of the program, dissatisfaction at work (especially in the beginning of a volunteer’s mandate), diffi culties of integration within the new cultural and work settings, culture shock and unsustainable environmental
2. Mutually agreed upon by the volunteer, sending organisation and hosting or-ganisation.
3. Certifi cate of Award to O. Skrypnyk for the completion of EVS service, 2006–
2007.
4. Authors’ experience with EVS includes a combination of being a volunteer and completing the service for 12 months, training volunteers, and researching with volunteers and EVS management staff in both sending and hosting organisa-tions.
conditions, EVS volunteers seem to be satisfi ed with their being abroad.
The recurring theme in our discussions with them is how much they learned – about people and about themselves. This glaring contradiction, or paradox is what led us to question what is it, then, that makes EVS so satisfactory for its participants? What is it that they learn?
An evaluation of the program clearly states that EVS has a signifi cant, positive impact on its young participants in terms of raising their intercultural awareness, enabling them to acquire skills, improve their self-confi dence, and increase their capacity for initiative and creativity (CEC, 2004, pp. 17–20). Academic research that con-nects volunteering and learning is limited in relation to the purpose of this chapter. Volunteering is approached with the perspective that it is useful in developing competences related to citizenship, and also, that it can have an impact on community development (Brandstetter
& Kellner, 2001), which usually does not address the learning proc-esses but rather focuses on their outcomes. A good portion of research that is relevant to conceptualising learning processes during EVS was conducted with the focus on local volunteerism (Elsdon, 1995;
Livingstone, 1999). Some of the processes identifi ed on the local level are shared by volunteers who go abroad, however, the component of working abroad is missing. To bridge the gap, there are a variety of studies in the fi eld of psychology related to the sojourner’s experiences and cultural adjustment. However, these studies cannot be directly applied to learning experiences within EVS for several reasons. The processes sojourners undergo can vary depending on the structure of their experiences: businessmen, professionals and scholars tend to have more identifi ed roles than volunteers and missionaries (Church, 1982, p. 546). However, studies related to volunteers (i.e. Peace Corps) cannot be completely applied either: the age range of Peace Corps volunteers is wider than EVS volunteers. Studies on sojourners of a similar age group (Erasmus students) can be complementary but the volunteer’s roles are more ambiguous and their involvement within the host culture is higher than that of students (Olczak & Penczek,
2006). Thus, we used the studies on local volunteers as a starting point in the search of theoretical framework to conceptualise the learning processes of EVS volunteers.
Although EVS program descriptions emphasise the role of non-formal learning, the actual learning that occurs during a voluntary experience abroad is in large part informal. Sousa & Quarter (in Branstetter & Kellner, 2001) found that informal learning takes place through mentoring, manuals, meeting with staff and colleagues, retreats, newsletters, organisational updates via email, the internet, journals, watching videos and through personal correspondence. All of these comprise daily activities that EVS volunteers undertake. Sousa
& Quarter (ibid.) also reported that non-formal learning takes place through orientations, conferences, training courses and workshops as well as certifi cation. In the case of EVS, volunteers need to participate in at least three non-formal educational activities: pre-departure ori-entation, on-arrival and mid-term training normally lasting for 5 days (EC, 2007). Clearly volunteers can be involved in conferences and training courses if that is a part of their working tasks, but in terms of the proportion between non-formal and informal elements, it is undoubtedly informal learning that takes place most of the time.
As defi ned in the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning, informal learning is a natural accompaniment to everyday life; it is not necessarily intentional and may not be recognised by individuals as contributing to their knowledge and skills (CEC, 2000). Informal learning can be defi ned as any activity involving the pursuit of understanding, knowledge or skill which occurs outside the curricula of formal and non-formal educational institutions (Livingstone, 1999). There have been academic attempts to categorise informal learning that happens through volunteering (Elsdon, 1995; Brandstetter & Kellner, 2001).
Some of the categories addressed, are related to specifi c knowledge, such as language skills or professional skills (e.g. factual knowledge on particular issues), instrumental skills, process skills (Schugurensky
& Mündel, in Branstetter & Kellner, 2001), international
infor-mal learning (Livingston, in Branstetter & Kellner, 2001), content / thematically based learning, occupational learning (Elsdon, 1995);
while some are related to citizenship (e.g. political and civic learning) (Elsdon, Schugurensky & Mündel, in Branstetter & Kellner, 2001);
and fi nally some deal with personal development (personal learning, social learning) (Elsdon, 1995).
Elsdon (1995) undertook a large scale survey of local voluntary organisations in Britain and empirically discovered:
The one [of the voluntary program objecti ves] which was given priority almost universally, and reported as being of greater im-portance than the content objecti ves of the organizati on, is quite simply growth in confi dence, and its ramifi cati ons and secondary eff ects of self-discovery, freedom in forging relati onships and un-dertaking tasks, belief in oneself and in one’s potenti al as a human being and an agent, and ability to learn and change (p. 47).
EVS “produces an impetus” for personal development and a consider-able gain in self-confi dence (CEC, 2004, p. 18), which is what people in close contact with volunteers observe. It is from this perspective that we started interpreting the data we had about EVS volunteers and their learning.