Babeș -Bolyai University [605090]

“Babeș -Bolyai” University
College of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences
NGO Management Masters

Dissertation Paper

Long term volunteering utility on youth's
insertion on the labor market
______________________________________________________ __________________________ _

in Cluj Napoca

Coordinator : Graduate:
Prof. Țiclău Tudor Octavian Alexandru Grecu

Cluj Napoca / February 201 7

1
Content

1 Volunteering / Trends & Legislation ………………………………………………………………………………. 2
1.1 Motivation ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
1.2 Definitions & History …………………………… …………………………………… …………………… … 4
1.3 Types ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …….. 5
1.4 Legal background ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
2 Informal Learning / Through volunteering …………………………………………………………………….. 7
3 International level / European Voluntary Service …………………………………………………. ……… 10
3.1 Purpose & Means……………………………………………………………………………………. …….. 10
3.2 The Process …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11
3.3 Who can participate ………………………………………………………………………………………. 11
3.4 Data …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. . 12
3.5 The connection ……………….. ……………………………………………………………………………… 16
4 Local level / Cluj Napoca ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
4.1 Volunteering importance in finding work ………………………………………………………. 19
4.2 Opportunities in Cluj Napoca …………. ……………….. ……………………….. …………………. 21
5 Research report / Data analysis……………………………………………………………………………. …….. 23
5.1 Research objectives ………………………………………………………………………………………. 23
5.2 Hypothesis ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23
5.3 Methodology ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24
5.4 Interview data analysis…………………………………………………………………………… ……… 25
6 Conclusions / The good & the bad ………………………………………………………………………………. 38

Interview guide ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 41
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………….. 43

2
❶ Volunteering /// Trends & Legislation

It's usually considered as being an altruistic activity and it's meant to promote
goodness, philanthropy, to improve the human quality of life or to help solve a social issue.
Self worth, confidence, respect and self esteem are some of the qualities that volunteering
activities are meant to induce to the individual prac ticing it . Even though by being engaged
in a volunteering activity, one might not have any financial gain, the activity itself can lead
to the participant's enjoyment, skills development and socialization. Volunteering can be
enjoyable for the person doing it but it can also bring valuable benefits to the community in
which it's being done.

Many of us believe, and nowadays it is actually turning out to be truest than ever,
that by doing volunteering activities we can be more exposed and have better chances of
employment by constantly improving our network of people and being in contact with new
information. Volunteers get trained in many different fields in order to complete their
tasks, such fields can be education, emergency rescue, media and adver tising , medicine,
social work , ecology and many others.

Volunteering has become an increasingly popular activity, especially among young
people, particularly students and new graduates. Activities in these areas have significantly improved over the last few decades and in present times volunteers have the possibility to
travel to different countries for longer periods of time, get used to the new culture, the new
people and work for an organization that supports a specific cause. These types of
experience s sometimes prove to be a real eye-opener for the youngsters attending them
and many of them discover what their true calling in life is, a phase of one's life in which many young people seem to be stuck nowadays.

3
①① Motivation
Why do people choose to get involved in volunteering a ctivities ? What is their
motivation? Why would they spend their time, talent and sometimes some of their financial
resources to get involved in such activities?
"Motivation is an inside job "1, people act the way they do because of their own
reasons. In order to give somebody reasons to become a volunteer, organizations try to
stimulate the inner motivation of each individual. People respond to this calling and motivation when being subjected t o different incentives. Most of the people are responsive
to three levels of motivation: ● basic level: Self -serving drive
● secondary level: Relational drive
● highest level: Belief drive
The basic level of self-serving drive refers to the simplest reasons people join
organizations as volunteers. The simplest reasons are the ones directly serving the
individual, for example: need of experience, business reasons, making new friendships,
belonging, networking and other s elf-serving needs. Networking is one of the greatest
benefits of volunteering activities. Most of the organizations looking to recruit volunteers
will pay attention to these opportunities since they are a win- win situation.
The secondary level refers to relational drive , meaning people decide to volunteer
because of friends, relatives or acquaintances that are already doing so, while serving a
cause the individual is also interested in. "Relational marketing is one of the most effective
marketing tools. "2 Of course if th e individual has absolutely no interest in the cause the
volunteering activity stands for or for volunteering in general, he/she will probably not get
involved.

1,2 (McKee 2009, p. 1 1 )"Why People Volunteer" – Paper by Thomas W. McKee

4

The third and strongest drive of a volunteer is the bel ief. At this level the volunteer
strongly beli eves in the cause that he/she is serving for and is being very passionate about
it. The bel ief drive will make a volunteer do a lot of sacrifices, invest more time and be
more interested in order to see the positive final result of an activity. The third level is the
highest point of motivation and most of the organizations wish to see rookie volunteers
entering the organization in their baisic or secondary levels and managing to reach a high
motivational third level.
Volunteering activities can be considered as some kind of exchange, even though
"there is a long tradition of seeing volunteering as a form of charity, based on altruism and
selflessness."3 They can be viewed like that since every single one of us will be in need of
help at some point i n our life. One day we may find ourselves as being the helpers, but
some other day we will be the ones needing help from others, not reffering strictly to
individuals but also to communities or whole countries.
Some of the main motivations for volunteerin are listed in the tagcloud below:

Image 1

This micro chapter defines the levels of motivation, which determine people to
get involved in volunteer ing activities. We believe it is important to see what drives
people to get involved, as many organizations use these incentives to attract volunteers to their causes.

3 (Energize Inc., Susan J. Ellis n.d.)

5

①② Definitions & History
In the Romanian law, volunteering is defined as follows “ Volunteering is an activity of
public interest, undertaken out of free will by a person aiming at he lping others, without being
motivated by financial or material gains ”4.
There is no universal agreement upon the definition of volunteering, however,
another interesting one, found in the book By the People: A history of Americans as Volunteers
by Susan .J Ellis and Katherine H. Campbell, states “ To volunteer – to choose to act in
recognition of a need, with an attitude of social responsibility and without concern for monetary
profit, going beyond one's basic obligations ”5.
Helping other peopl e has been a part of our nature since the beginning of the
human race. However, we did not organize ourselves very well before the 19th century, as
in, not many charitable organizations existed. Some of the first volunteer organizations,
which appeared dur ing the 20th century, were the Rotary Club, Kiwanis and the Lions Club.
The Red Cross was also one of the first volunteering organizations and it played a
crucial part during World War II, when a large
number of volunteers helped the military and
the home front with activities that included
caring for the injured, collecting different
supplies and entertaining soldiers that were
on leave. At the end of World War II, people
who wanted to help started looking for people
in need, so volunteers started getting involved
in poor areas of the world or countries affected by natural disasters. In 1960 the
Peace Corp was founded. As time went by,

4 (European Union, n.d.)
5 (Ellis & Campbell 2005, p. 9)

6
volunteers started to get involved in a lot of other aspects and the recruiting process by the
organizations turned into a more formal one. Today volunteers get involved in almost
every major sports or entertainment event, areas affected by natural disasters, a lot of local
and social issues that the state does not address and many others.
As for volunteering in Romania, a st udy on volunteering ran by the European Union
on each member country, states the following: “ Literature indicates that Romanian civil
society emerged during the early 20th century when cultural and sport associations started to develop alongside the Cathol ic Church, which has been historically involved in helping
disadvantaged groups through its monastic orders and church associations (Association for Community Relations -ACR, 2003). However, during the communist regime, many of the civil
society structures were destroyed and those remaining were placed under the control of the
totalitarian administration. Following the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, the
voluntary sector re -emerged in Romania. External factors also helped to promote voluntary
activ ities and organizations: after 1990, a large number of foreign volunteers arrived in
Romania, many of whom took part in social assistance activities or contributed to social services
(such as, through „Médecins Sans Frontières‟ ). More recently, the 2001 In ternational Year of
Volunteering helped to launch the Romanian Volunteering Law.
Whilst progress has been made in the development of a Romanian civil society in line
with those seen in Western Europe, further development is still needed. Statistics have shown
that the rate of volunteering in Romania has remained persistently (Badescu et al., 2007).
Furthermore, in 1990, around 300 NGOs were founded every month. However, on a comparative
basis, at that time Romania continued to have the lowest number of NGO s amongst the ex –
communist countries.
This is in part due to low levels of social trust in Romania and a lack of tradition in
forming associations (whether formal or informal). According to Voicu & Voicu (2003), the low
levels of volunteering and negative prejudices associated with it stem from the communist period
in Romania, during which "voluntary work" meant unpaid and mandatory activities, imposed by the communist public administration on its citizens. “Voluntary” patriotic activities would include

7
agricultural activities (harvesting for state companies), cleaning public places, and gathering
recyclables. Penalties could be applied in case a person refused to participate into these
activities. Moreover, during the communist period, non- governmental ass ociations could not be
established and operate without state control. The law also prohibited the civil right of
individuals to free association. As a result, there were very few non -governmental associations in
existence at that time (such as, the Women’s National Association) and they would normally be
controlled by the state. Furthermore, such organizations often had strong political ties, with the
central or local authorities naming the heads of local and national associations. As such, it can
be argued that the communist regime disempowered the civil society in Romania (Voicu & Voicu,
2003). In addition to the legacies of the communist regime, there are a number of other factors, which have impacted on the slow development of the NGO sector in Romania. These include: the
traditional character of the Romania society in which social connectedness is exclusively
confined to family ties; and the lack of social trust in other reference social groups, outside of the
family circle. Studies undertaken by the John Hopkins Comparative Non- profit Sector Projects
also suggest that the voluntary sector in Romania may be affected by the national economic situation (Epure et al., 2001). For instance, the decreasing trend in volunteering between 1996
and 1997 – a period marked by economic downturn – may indicate that volunteerism in Romania
does not have the character of “economic complementarity”, but of “superposition”. Results have shown that periods of economic hardship tend to correlate with lower rates of volunteeri ng.”
6

This sub chapter talks about the starts of the volunteering activity in the
world and about of the contextual background of volunteering and how it was, and
probably still seen today by some Romania ns. The start of volunteering as we know
it today, after the fall of the communist regime, was an unpopular one, because of
the term “volunteer” during that era, which meant everybody had to do work, for
free, in the interest of the state. Most of the population was not very fond of this.

6 (European Union, n.d.)

8
①③ Types
When talking about types of volunteering we have a wide variety , which differs from
the location where it takes place to the activity involved:
● skills-based volunteering : in a bit of a contrast with traditional volunteering
where training is not required and it reffers to the use of specialized skills
and talents of an individual helping the organization acheive its goals
● volunteering in developing countries: very popular among youngsters, it
involves traveling to a developing country and help implementing different
programs usefull for community or social development
● virtual volunteering : also called e-volunteering or online volunteering, this
type of volunteering activity does not require the volunteer to be present at
any location, just in front of a computer, tablet, smartphone or any internet-
connected device, doing simple tasks online
● micro -volunteering : similar to virtual volunteering, it's an activity that takes
place online, but it doe s not require any training or a long applicaton process
● environmental volunteering: volunteering that contributes to the
protection and conservation of the natural environment in any way
● volunteering in an emergency : a type of volunteering tha t plays a key role
in the efforts of recovery of a community or even a country after natural
disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and others
● volunteering in schools: educational volunteering in schools, usually in
poor communiti es and countries where the governments can not provide the
needed number of teachers
● corporate volunteering : the large company's sustainability and social
responsibiliy efforts determined them to allow their employees to engage in
volunteering activities during working hours
● community voluntary work : reffers to the volunteers dedicated to helping
improve their local communities, they can be part of a non profit
organization or just informally grouped.

9
Another classification of volunt eering activities, based mostly on the nature of the
activity itself, includes 5 different types:
● traditional volunteering: this is what old fashioned volunteering really
represents and it involves just being a volunteer for a local NGO. Some
individuals just want to make a difference in their societies, some just like to
give a helping hand and some just prefer to donate. Thi s activity is usually
done for a limited number of hours a week or a few times per year
● internship/ gap year volunteering: more and more students nowadays
prefer to take a gap year after graduating high school, a year in which they
can volunteer for different NGOs. Some are hoping to get some valuable
experience that will help them with their future job , some are hoping to
discover their true calling and some just do it for the fun involved
● voluntourism: volun-tourism is the kind of volunteering where th e
individual willing to get involved, searches for opportunities abroad in order
to travel and experience a new country and culture. Many youngsters
traveling, first search for an organization looking for temporary volunteers,
as it is an easy and cheap wa y to travel and also get involved in different
activities with the locals and get in sights and tips never accessed before by regular tourists. There are many search websites, helping youngsters find
these kinds of activities
● online volunteering: strictl y involves work done through the internet for an
organization. This may include maintaining a NGOs website or a social media
page, creating different graphic materials, Skype meetings for presentations
or mentoring purposes or other work of this nature
● micro volunteering: is also done online and it refers to very small actions
done by the individual, such as giving a signature in order to raise awareness

10
on a certain issue or donating money through crowd -funding for a specific
project.

Another classification done by the Student World Online website, emphasizes the
domain of the activity which the volunteer can get involved in. Regarding that fact, the
types of volunteering are as follows:
● environmental conservation: even though the tasks and r oles in this type of
volunteering activity vary widely, the end goal is almost always the same,
which is to protect the environment around us. Programs in this category can
run from recycling and waste cleaning to urban planning and collecting
environmenta l data
● animal welfare: this could also be considered as a subcategory of
environment protection, and projects in this field usually take the volunteer
very close to wild animals, usually endangered species, hurt animals or
animals who are at risk in the wild
● teaching: no need for further explanations, teaching volunteer activities can
run from foreign language skills to an personal hygiene care. Even though we live in an age where we have the most educated individuals ever, there are a
lot of places whe re children get minimal education and additional help is
needed

● construction: usually recommended for volunteers who actually like to see
the end result and get the satisfaction out of that. They usually take place in third world countries and they involve a lot of hard work, but it’s also a great
opportunity to meet locals and interact
● medical: usually needing some kind of accreditations, volunteers with
medical knowledge are needed all around the world. Experiences can give
volunteers different insigh ts and knowledge on how to deal with unexpected
challenges.

11
Under this sub chapter, we have taken a look at different types of
volunteering activities and what they involve. We have made classification based on
location, the activity involved, the nature of the volunteering activity and also the
actual domain under which they take place. A ctivities can vary wildly as we have
seen above.

①④ Legal background
In Romania , we have the volunteer law Nr.195/20.04.2001 which has suffered some
modifications and became a more recent law Nr.339/17.07.2006. This law is meant to
protect the volunteer, so that he is respected by the organization he is volunteering for and
also state s the responsibilities of both the volunteer and the organization.
Even more recently, September 2013, it has come to the Romanian Parliament
attention that they should give a legal proposal regarding the volunteering activity in
general in Romania. This initiative has been supported by 106 senators and deputies who
have the purpose to sustain the voluntary movement. This decision should not only have effects on the non -profit sector but would also impact the labor market, social and
professional developm ent of the individuals who get involved in these types of activities.
Some of the most important regulations of the new law include:
● the relationship settlement between the volunteer and the organization through a
legal document, a type of contract
● the recognition of voluntary work as legal work experience, if the volunteering
activity has been done in the field of previously graduated studies
● the grant from the hosting organization of a certificate recognizing the volunteers
acquired competen ces

12
The law has been passed in the month of July 2014. This mean s better working
conditions, better trained volunteers and above all more volunteering activities out there to
choose from.
It has also been discussed that a different law should be passed regarding university
graduating student, who should have at least 6 months of volunteering work before
starting to work in a company and have a real job. So if one has not done volunteering all
his/hers life, will now be compelled to do it by law, putting himself/herself in full service to
an organization without getting any compensation, in the sole purpose to gain some basic work experience before starting to work in a company. These discussions are well intended
and want to help the youngster s starting to enter the labor market but at the moment,
discussions are all that they are.
Article Nr.15 from the volunteering law Nr.78/2014 has been updated again
recently, becoming law Nr.175/ 17.10.2016. The new updates refer to the contract between
organization and volunteer and state, in short, that a coordinator should always be
assigned to the volunteer during his activity, security and health of the volunteer are
extremely important during his traineeship, food and accommodation costs for the
volunteer should be covered by the organization and the contract between the two can be
terminated at any time with both sides agreeing to it or due to the volunteer having any
type of health issues.
These initiatives by the Romanian government are somehow of a statement which
indicate the late acknowledgement that volunteering is generally very important for the
individual 's development and ha s been totally neglected so far in our country .
Unfortunately, in Romania, some multinational employers attit ude towards applicants who
have active volunteering experience in their resume is suspicious and doubtful, their
conclusion being that the applicant does not like to work for financial benefit which is
considered something wrong in their eyes.
The volunte ering concept is not by far that developed in Romania as it is in other
west European countries, but the passing and approval of these recent laws is a step in the

13
right direction and it’s aimed at getting us closer to that standard. However the legal
back ground was not conceived in the western countries that long ago either.

When we take a look at our European neighbors, Italy has implemented The General
Policy Law on Volunteerism since 1991 and Spain has The Spanish Act on Voluntary Work since
1996. Our closest neighbor, Hungary, only implemented The Law on Public Interest Volunteer
Activities in 2003 which “takes a relatively narrow regulatory approach ”7 to these types of
activities, while Poland introduced The Law on Public Benefit Activ ity and Volunteerism also in
2003, which is more complex and “regulates volunteering for non- profit entities, non –
governmental organizations, associations of units of local government, public administration
bodies, and other legal entities subject to this law. The law also applies to those Polish volunteers
who perform services for international organizations ”8. Portugal has a volunteer law since
1998, Latvia since 2003 and Luxemburg since 1999.

Volunteering laws should be revised every few years in order to promote
volunteerism, remove any legal impediments for people wanting to get involved and most importantly protect the volunteers.

This last sub chapter of the larger Chapter 1, talks about the development of
the volunteering law in Romania, from 2001 when it was first passed until its last
improvement in recent 2016. The chapter also looks at how other European countries
have taken into consideration the volunteering law, how consistent it is and when it
has passed in these countries. The conclusion i s that the law should be revised
continuously in order to adapt to recent times and promote volunteerism , which
implicitly leads to informal learning and new acquired skills among youngsters who
practice it .

7 (Hadzi -Miceva n.d. , p. 7,8)
8 (Hadzi -Miceva n.d. , p. 7,8)

14
❷ Informal Learning /// Through volunteering

It has been intensely discussed over the last few decades that investment s in
education and welfare are an effective measure for the promotion of active citizenship and
the prevention of social exclusion.
Educational institutions and other organizations involved in the educational field
come to the conclusion that formal educational systems alone cannot respond to rapid and
constant technological, social and economic change in society, thus they should be
reinforced by non -formal educational practices. Th erefore l earning is not restricted to the
time spent in school. It begins at birth and continues throughout one's individual life.
Given the importance of learning foundations, currently those individuals from a
society that miss out on basic education suffer exclusion. However, ongoing learning
throughout life enables people to take advantage of new opportunities that arise as society
changes. It also provides opportunities for those who are unemployed to re -enter the
workforce.
Every kind of learning that happens outside the traditional school setting can be
called non- formal. Non -formal education has been described variously as an educational
movement, a setting, a process and sometimes a system. However next other than non –
form al education we have another type of education, which is nearly never talked about,
called informal learning.
Fiona Duguid, Karsten Mundel and Daniel Schugurensky state in their book
Volunteer Work, Informal Learning and Social Action the following: “ we tend to assume that the
only educational game in town is the formal education system, that is, the institutional ladder that goes from kindergarten to the university. For a variety of reasons, the bulk of financial and
human resources, policies, programs, curriculum development and research focus on the formal
education system. Important resources and research efforts are also allocated to the non -formal
education system, which encompasses all the organized educational programs outside of the

15
formal education system. Indeed, in addition to schools, people also learn a great deal – from
religion to gastronomy, sports, literacy, health, politics and history – through workshops, courses,
lessons, seminars and other educational activities. However, there is a thir d dimension in the
world of learning, and such dimension is usually unacknowledged by researchers and by the
larger society. This third dimension, known as informal learning, is a residual category that
includes all that learning that is not acquired throu gh the formal and non- formal educational
systems.”9
The bibliographical source talks a lot about the vast amount of learning that takes
place during volunteering work and also about most publications not touching the informal
learning side of a volunteeri ng activity: “The connections between informal learning and
volunteer work are rarely discussed, or even acknowledged. Most definitions of volunteering
work, even the most comprehensive ones, tend to omit any reference to learning. ”
Thus informal learning is completely different from the institutionalized,
chronologically graded and hierarchically structured nature of the formal education
system .
Having to complete a volunteering placement involves either a lower or a higher
degree of informal learning. E very project is unique and each position has its own
characteristics, therefore volunteers might need to be trained in order to be introduced to
their tasks. Some volunteers will have to teach others using non-formal education
techniques learned through informal learning.
Informal learning and non -formal education are an integral part of a lifelong
learning concept that ensures that young people and adults as well acquire and maintain
the skills, abilities and dispositions needed to adapt to a continuously changing
environment. It can be acquired on the personal initiative of each individual through different learning activities taking place outside the formal educational system.

9 (Duguid, Mundel, Schugurensky 2013, p. 6,7)

16
Coming back to the bibliographical source mentioned above, the authors mention
some of the skills discovered to be improved after the involvement in volunteering
activities: “ In the section of benefits of volunteering, the Statistics Canada survey does include a
question on learning skills. Two- thirds of respondents (66%) mentioned i nterpersonal skills, such
as understanding and motivating people or being better able to handle difficult situations. This
was followed by communicational skills (45%), organizational or managerial skills (39%),
knowledge about specific subjects like health, gender, political issues, criminal justice, or the
environment (34%), fundraising skills (32%) and technical skills such as first aid, coaching,
computer skills and bookkeeping (25%). ”

During the Final Declaration of the 5th Conference of European Ministers
responsible for Youth, all of the European countries were encouraged to promote equality
of opportunity by recognizing the training and skills acquired through informal learning
and non-formal education and by finding vario us ways of endorsing the experience and
qualifications acquired in this way. It welcomes the setting-up of a "working group on non –
formal education" in the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe , other entities
representing Europe and also private funded organizations encourages all those who will
shape educational policies within an European country to acknowledge that informal
learning and non-formal education is an essential part of the educational process and to
recognize the contribution that can be made by non -governmental organizations involved
in these types of education , also it encourages the application of the new information
technologies to informal learning and non- formal education and stresses the need to
ensure an easy access to them at nati onal and international levels.
In the U nited States , on most of the educational levels, many of the schools offer
service-learning which gives the students the opportunity to earn educational credit
through volunteering. "Service learning is characterized by a relationship of partnership: the
student learns from the service agency and from the community and, in return, gives energy,

17
intelligence, commitment, time and skills to address human and community needs ."10 In the
book Where's the Learning in Service Learning? by Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles it is
explained that the volunteering activities within the service -learning activities seemed to
provide a much more powerful learning experience since students are engaged both
intellectually and spiritually in the subjects. It is explained that this happens due to easily
capturing the student's interest. Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles also ran a survey where
they discovered that the level of enthusiasm is very high when students are doing service –
learning and that they believe they can learn much more using service -learning techniques
(which involve volunteering) than traditional learning.
Volunteering activities offer various means of informal learning and non-formal
educatio n, through which young people can develop greatly, these concepts being greatly
supported by the European governments. Together they work to help the individual reach
higher into better understanding democracy concepts, social awareness, the real threats
affecting the world today and the means and resources needed to overcome them .
As a sign of support, the European Union, through the European Council, has a long
history of investing in volunteering activities and in youth in general. Ma ssive amounts of
funds are destined to the development of youth, every fiscal period, through formal and informal means as well.

This chapter presents the connection between volunteering and informal
learning, and the importance it has for young people. I nformal learning and non-
formal education are highly accepted concepts by the European Union, because they
are a successful route to the development of youth , and, as we will see in the next
chapter, they benefit from a lot of financial resources from the EU and have very
organized and developed programs for.

10 (Eyler & Giles 1999, p. 12 )

18
❸ International level /// European Voluntary Service

We will talk next about the European Voluntary Service , because we have focused, in
our survey, on people that have completed EVS programs. Our sample of interviewees
must have completed a long term volunteering program, which we have defined as being a
minimal of 2 months, with a constant, daily activity. Not that many people get involved to
do volunteering that long and intensely locally, so a very good source for volunteers that
respect the above mentioned criteria are former EVS volunteers.
“EVS was introduced as a pilot action in 1996 and has evolved into a volunteering
exchange scheme unique in its scope and comprehensiveness. Unlike many overseas schemes
popular with Western graduates who want to do a gap year, EVS is a free voluntary service with
almost all of its costs covered by the European Commi ssion ”11
Currently, E VS is possible thr ough the Erasmus Plus programme, but it was called
Youth in Action programme, prior to 2014. This umbrella of programs for youth, include
activities on short term or long term and activities for informal learning and f ormal
education. EVS is a long term program, under the informal learning scope. As other examples, we have Youth Exchanges and Youth Trainings which are short term programs (5
– 30 days where youngsters of different nationalities from European Commission c ountries
get together and play, work, learn and interact) also under the informal learning scope and Erasmus, which is also a long term program under the formal education scope (students
get to do one semester of their university studies at another univers ity in Europe).
The European Uninon’s website says about the Youth in Action programme “ The
Youth in Action programme, which ran from 2007 to 2013, aimed to inspire active
citizenship, solidarity and tolerance and involve young people in shaping the future of the
European Union. Youth in Action (YiA) promoted mobility, non- formal learning, in tercultural

11 (European Union n.d.)

19

dialogue and inclusion, primarily among people aged 13 -30 and supported youth workers
and civil society organizations through training and networking ”12.
EVS programs allows young people the opportunity to make a difference and make
a personal c ommitment through full-time voluntary work in a foreign country , within or
outside of the European Union for a period of 2 to 12 months.

③① Purpose & Means
The purpose of the EVS programs is to develop mutual understanding, solidarity
and tolerance among youngsters while contributing to promote active citizenship and to
strengthen social cohesion. The YouthP ass is the document recognizing the learning
experience that the volunteer had, and is usually received after the successful completion
of a volunteering term. For the EVS programs, the volunteers receive free housing, health
insurance coverage, food or money to purchase food, monthly pocket money and usual ly
90% of the travel costs are reimbursed by the hosting organization.
EVS volunteers working for more than two months abroad can get additional
support to learn, and test their progress in the language used during their volunteering.
③② The process
In order for an EVS project to be successful, three key players must cooperate and
reach an agreement:

The host organization usually plays the role of the coordinator and applies for EU
funding for the project. It develops the project in order to have a beneficiary effect to the
local community. If the funding is approved the host organization contacts multiple

12 (European Union n.d.)

20
sending organizations which have the task to identify volunteer opportunities, recruit the
volunteers, train them and also ensure follow- ups during the duration of the project.
The EVS Charter is a written document where all of the EVS's core values and quality
standards are laid down. In order for organizations to participate in these types of projects,
they must firstly be accredited by the European Commission. After the accreditation has
been received the organization can start applying for projects or looking for host
organizations that already have approved projects. An accreditation can be easily
withdrawn in cases of non-compliance with the Charter.

③③ Who can participate
All citizens from European Commission countries aged between 17 and 30 years of
age. If an organization wishes to obtain an accreditation or a funding for a project in order
to attract volunteers, requested are being submitted at the Erasmus+ National Agencies,
found in each participating country. The agencies are also the primary information source
for the program users and organizations .

③④ Data
So what is the overall impact of a long term volunteering program? Does it really
respond to the youth's needs and the needs of the beneficiary organizations? Does it really
change attitudes or develop competences? Will it make it easier for youngsters to find a
job, or know what kind of job they want to start looking for ?
When talking about achievements of the Youth in Action programme (2007 – 2013) ,
the European Union’s website states that “The programme supported around 8,000 projects
and provided opportunities for around 150,000 young people and youth workers every
year ”13. The EU ran a survey on the effects of the programme and discovered that, out of
the participants, 91% have stated that they reached a higher level of foreign language

13 (European Union n.d.)

21

proficiency, 87% said “ it made them more at ease with multicu lturalism ”, 84% learned how to
better serve the communities in which they live, 75% stated that they have learned how to
be more efficient at indentifying opportunities for their professional or personal future and
67% said “ their job prospects increased thanks to their YiA experience ”.

In another EU survey, measuring people's opinions toward the types of activities in
question and the effects that they had in their lives, the following results were discovered.
A single opinion can be very subjective, but the cumulative notion of all the stakeholders
can give us a clearer image of what is going on.
Image 2

22
In the graph above we have a comparison of the number of participant s among all
of the European Commissio n countries, also with the candidate country Turkey and with
Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein and Switzerland. We can see in red the number of
participants for Youth Exchange short term programs, and in green the number of
participants for EVS projects descri bed above.
Youth exchanges are much less impactful than their long term cousin, the EVS.
Young people from different countries get together and share impressions, play games ,
learn and are involved in different short term goal achieving activities . Youth exchanges are
meant to open young individual’s spectrum of awareness and networking and also raise the same values as the EVS programs, but on a much smaller scale. Technically, these short
term programs are somehow of an incentive for young people to get involved in long term
EVSs, some might even call it a prelude.

I f w e t a k e a l o o k i n t h e g r a p h a b o v e , t he leader by far is Turkey with 8.000
participants in Youth Exchanges, almost tied with Germany it seems, and almost 1.200 in
European Voluntary Service projects.

If we take a closer look, Romania is in a very good position, it's actually ranked 7th
with almost 3.500 participants, for the attendants in Youth Exchanges and a bit lower for
EVS participation but overall high numbers, meaning the EVS progra ms are popular in
Romania and a high number of youngsters decide to participate in EVS projects. This also
represent a good thing for our research, because we have targeted former EVS volunteers
for our survey, however these young people are still not easy to find.

23

Of course the population of the countries listed in the graph has a huge impact on
participation as well. This is clearly the reason why Turkey (79 million people) and Germany
(82 million people) are in the lead.
In the lower graphs we will se e the main results of a survey launched by the
European Commission, in 2010, among participants of projects supported by the Youth in
Action program. The outcomes of this survey show a strong impact of the program on
young participants, on social animators dealing with young people (youth workers) and on
youth organiz ations. This impact relates not only to skills and competences acquired by
participants, but also to being active citizens.

Image 3

24

The graph shows the a verage appreciation by young participants, for each of the key
competences , of the extent to which they have increased their competences .

The impact on the attitudes of the participants in such programs is showed in the
next image. The EVS programs emp hasize the European values that the community wants
younger generations to learn: active citizenship, awareness on different issues, tolerance
and multiculturalism acknowledgement .

Image 4

The survey has shown that EVS projects create relations and rai se the levels of
awareness on different European issues and as we have also seen in the first survey
presented in this chapter, it also helps them identify opportunities and increase their
future job prospects.

25
Until this point in this chapter, we have talked about the impact of the
European Union’s Youth in Action programme (2007 – 2013) and some of the values
and skills it has raised in the participants , looking at surveys ran by the EU. We have
also taken a closer look at the European Voluntary Servic e (EVS) conditions of
participation , benefits and some of the things that can be learned from it . We are
talking about EVS because a large number of the respondents from our interview
have been selected because they have successfully completed EVS programs .

③⑤ The connection
An article from Ziarul Financiar entitled ” How not to be on welfare with a college
diploma ” states that volunteering is especially useful when youngsters are students,
recommending better to get involved in volunteering then finding a full or part time job
while being a student. According to the article, among the benefits of doing volunteering
over a job we can distinguish:
● finding a domain that interest the individual and keeps him constantly
motivated
● volunteering offers a very low level of stress compared to the alternative of
a job and is therefore much healthier, physically and mentally
● keeps the individual connected, helping him with social skills and easing
the process of making friends
● volunteering can help the individual advance in his professional career if it
is in the same area of interest and helps the individual meet people from the
same domain which can ultimately also lead to employment
● volunteering activities can be very fulfilling for the individual can produce a
lot of happiness, which in the case of students can mean a lot of fun and

26
drastically helping them to built empathy characteristics and interest in
general.
Recently, a nati onal study ran by the Marketing and Social Forecasting Center in
Romania shows that, in 2016, only 14% of the population has been involved in volunteering
activities. The study, called “ Individual social responsibility in Romania ”14 shows that
Romanians are not getting involved in volunteering activities because of the lack of time
(34%) and also because of the lack of information regarding volunteering opportunities
(also 34%). Most of the 14% that have volunteered in 2016 are youngsters, students or
newly hired individuals and they have done so because 40% of them are motivated by
solidarity and 15% believe that it can help them with their professional careers.
Looking in the past, a study on volunteering ran by the European Union on each of
its member coun tries, shows the progress on the total number of volunteers in Romania.
Unfortunately exact numbers do not exist for each year, but for the years that we do have
information for, the numbers look like this:
“● 2008: 12.8% (approx. 1.7 million) (source: 2008 European Values Survey)
● 2007: 5.8% (approx. 810.000) (source: Barometer of Public Opinion, CFDSC)
● 2002: 8% (approx. 1.1 mil) (source: ARC and Allavida)
● 1999: 9.5% (approx. 1.3 mil) (source: 1999 European Values Survey) ”15

The sam e study talks about the trends in volunteering numbers in each European
country. Data is a bit blurry because it is very hard to know the exact number of volunteers
in each country and the numbers in the past, so a comparison can be made. However the
infor mation we have discovered looks like this for the following countries:

14 (Mediafax 5th Dec 2013)
15 (European Union, n.d.)

27
Romania: “ It is difficult to draw any firm conclusions regarding trends in the number of
volunteers in Romania because of the lack of definitive data on this issue. A comparative
glance at the numbers of volunteers between 1999 and 2008 would suggest that the rate
of volunteering has increased slightly from 9.5% to 12.8% ” and then slightly increased
again to 14% in 2016.
Bulgaria: “ Classified data on the trend in the number of volunteers in Bulgaria in the past
decades is largely unavailable but based on the practice of the Bulgarian Red Cross this
trend is stable ”
Poland: “ Volunteering flourished in Poland from 2001 until 2007. In 2004, around 5.4
million Poles, i.e. 18.3% of the populat ion, were engaged in a voluntary activity compared
to 10% in 2001, accounting for an increase of 8.3 percentage points. According to the Klon/Jawor Association, the main reason for the increase in voluntary engagement was
the positive change that was takin g place in the way people perceived voluntary activities.
People are more aware of volunteering and no longer consider it as compulsory work of
a collective nature ”
Spain: “ According to the main body responsible for volunteering at national level, the
Sub-direction of NGOs and Volunteering (Subdirección de ONGs y Voluntariado),
voluntary activities are increasing. Also the National Plan for Volunteering 2005 -2009
asserts that the increase in participation is particularly high at local level ”
Italy: “ it is e stimated that the number of volunteers in 2006 was approximately 1.125
million. A comparison of this number with ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica –
National Statistics Institute) surveys from 2003 and 1995 reveals that the number of
volunteers donat ing their time to voluntary organisations has increased in the past
decade: in 2003 there were 826,000 volunteers donating their time to 21,021 voluntary
organisations, an increase by 71% of the number of volunteers in 1995 ”

28
France: “ The number of bénévole s engaged and the time dedicated to bénévolat are
increasing by 3.8% and 5% per year respectively since 1999. According to INSEE, there
were 12 million bénévoles in 2004, compared to 7.9 millions in 1990 ”16
Another survey, “ The impact of volunteering and the organizational environment on to
the youngster’s development process ”17, ran by the Romanian Ministry of Youth and Sport
with the support of the European Union’s Erasmus Plus program in December of 2016 also
showed that a low number of youngsters are involved in NGOs or in volunteering activities
in general. The research encompassed 1200 respondents from all social classes with ages
between 14 and 35 years old and among the people who were involved in volunteering,
they stated that the skills they gained the most are communication (58%), civic and
interpersonal competences (50%) and learning to learn competences (44%).
94% of volunteers for the United Health Group, in the United States, state that their
mood is greatly improved by doing volunteering acti vities while 76% admit that they feel
healthier since they have started getting involved in such activities. The same group ran a
survey among already employees of companies which can feel the positive effects of
volunteering together and building their relationship: 81% admit that volunteering together
strengthens relationships among colleagues and they state that their they bring much
more “ refined job skills” at work, which ultimately benefits them as well as the employer.
A government study in the Uni ted States, ran by a federal agency that promotes
volunteerism has tracked around 70.000 jobless people in the States for 10 years (from
2002 to 2012) and has discovered that individuals who get involved in volunteering
activities have 27% higher chances o f getting a job, compared to the rest who did not
volunteer at all. The Corporation for National and Community Service also came up with an
article called “ Volunteering as a pathway to Employment ” in which it is stated that “ acquiring

16 (European Union, n.d.)
17 (Romanian Ministry of Youth and Sport n.d.)

29
skills or knowledge a s a volunteer and then putting them to use may demonstrate higher levels
of capacity, potentially making the volunteer more attractive to and productive for employers ”18.

It’s not a mystery that volunteering has some benefits and will probably help an up
comer on the job market to improve its skills but also offer additional empathy and other
skills not learned in school or while working a job, that’s why it is so highly demanded by
employers in the west and that’s why the Romanian government, with its lat e initiatives and
continuous efforts to recognize volunteering work, is also trying to introduce this culture into the local job market and make volunteering semi mandatory.

This last sub chapter of the larger Chapter 3 shows different survey findings
that show the advantages of the people involved in volunteering activities in
Romania and the United States. It also talks about the current situation of
volunteerism in Romania and it compares it to the trends in other European
countries. The conclusion is that volunteerism is generally on the rise in most of the
EU countries. In some eastern countries it happens slowly, like Romania (slow rise trend) and Bulgaria (steady trend) and in some western countries it happens a bit
faster, France has a 3.8% – 5% in crease in volunteer numbers per year, Italy has
experienced a large 71% increase during 1995 and 2003 and Spain is also experiencing
increases . The wild card is Poland which experienced an increase of 8.3% in volunteer
numbers during 3 years (2001 – 2004).

18 (Forbes magazine 24th Jun 2013)

30
❹ Local level /// Cluj Napoca

Most NGOs main reason for existence is to try to find a solution to a social problem,
usually, where neither the community nor the state has enough resources or motivation to
solve that specific issue. An NGO usually starts by a
volunteering association of citizens, whose goal is to
solve a specific issue. An NGO’s purpose has a non-
profit character, most of the times, and works toward
the interest of social development, being somewhat of
a link between the government and the community.
An NGO environment analysis in Cluj Napoca
done by Jonathan Scheele, the head of the Delegation
for the European Commission in Romania emphasizes
the importance of the NGOs in a community and states that " The third sector proves to be the most
effective way to strengthen the moral codes and personal
responsibilities for conduct. The non- governmental
organizations are characterized through a high degree of mobility regarding their ways and directions for the ir actions. This mobility represents their
survival condition, as long as their operations depend on a correct identification of the society's
needs and obtaining the resources necessary for approaching these needs. More and more the
NGOs are recognized as a significant component of the civic society and as an influencing factor
to the sustainability of the democratic governance system."
The same study reveals the number of non -profit organizations through the years
registered in Cluj -Napoca starting with 1990-2003 and the flash forwarding to 2013. The
number clearly fluctuates and we were not able to find a clear patter from year to year, we
can just notice an increase in number in 2013 compared to the other years in the 21th Year NGOs Registered at
Cluj Napoca City Hall
1990 481
1991 144
1992 63
1993 66
1994 83
1995 154
1996 525
1997 689
1998 291
1999 168
2000 134
2001 93
2002 123
2003 69
… …
2013 239
… …
2016 265

31
century. Fast forwarding again in 2016 we can see that number increase again, to 265
registered NGOs.
The growth in number of non-governmental organization is nothing short of a good
thing, meaning more people get involved in volunteering but most importantly that more
social issues are addressed. This rise will probably happen on a constant basis in the future
and one of its most important factors is the legal framework which seems to become more
structured, specific and to the topic, year by year. This growth and higher transparency in
the legal framework is also influenced by the huge amounts of financial assets that the European Union is pouring into its youth programs. If local NGOs wish to attract some of
these funds a clean- up, reorganization and a more structured system are def initely needed
at a local level.

④① Volunteering importance in finding work
Unemployment has reached historical highs in European countries in the last
decade mostly due to the economic crisis. Public data from google.com tells us that presently, Romania is sitting comfortably at number 8, in the better half of the graph with
an unemployment rate of 5 .8% in the month of October 2016 (a welcomed decrease to last
year’s 6.9% in April 2015) . This is a warming figure compared to Greece's 23.4% and Spain's
19.2%. On the other side of the graph, the Czech Republic and Germany sit most
comfortably with a 3.8% and 4.1% unemployment rate.
Getting more local, data gathered by the National Agency of Vacancy Occupation
(ANOFM) shows Cluj County is also among the counties with the smallest unemployment
rate in Romania, with a 2.74 percent, above it sitting only Ilfov (1.4%), Timiș (1.4%),
Bucharest (1.92%) and Arad county (2.58%) .

According to a Cristina Nicolescu interview, executive director at ProVobis
Volunteering Center from Cluj Napoca, there is no synthesized information about the total

32
number of volunteers in Romania, not to mention the number of volunteers by counties,
but what is know is that in Romania nearly all of the people engaging in volunteering
activities are youngsters, under the age of 30 , with very few exceptions of middle age
individuals or elderly people volunteering. At present times , Cluj Napoca is the largest
university centre in Romania with nearly 100.000 students and has not been the European
Youth capital in 2015 for no rea son. Cluj has been selected to be the European Youth
Capital because " the city is considered one of the best places to study in this part of Europe "
and because " universities and a lively youth scene are considered the key driving elements in
local and regional urban development "19 says europeanyouthcapital.org. The European
Youth Capital program is leaned to empower youth within societies in EU and non-EU
states, this is being believed to lead to sustainability and to a better future. Youth have the
oppo rtunity to enroll in different activities or for different organizations as volunteers.
Recently, record setting numbers have been set for highest number of volunteers from
Pharmacy and Medicine University wanting to volunteer for SMURD (500), over 1000
volunteers have been mobilized in only 7 days for the National Volunteers Week and over
400 volunteers have found different activities to get involved in, through the Cluj Napoca
Volunteering Centre, in one year.

If we were to make a prospect, these events and numbers do tell a lot about the
youth scene in Cluj Napoca and about the participation in volunteering activities as well.
Since we do not have concrete numbers because they do not exist , the activities listed
above and many more could be the re ason Cluj county stands as 5th in the country with
the smallest unemployment rate ratio.

19 (European Youth Forum 11th Mar 2013)

33

④② Opportunities in Cluj Napoca
If somebody is looking to find volunteering opportunities in Cluj Napoca, firstly
he/she must decide in which domain they w ould like to be active . Opportunities can be
found online with local festivals, non-profit organizations, and different activities or even s
at public institutions. Some of the best agencies in Cluj Napoca that can guide somebody to
a desired project or field o f interest are ProVobis, the Cluj Napoca Volunteering Centre, the
Red Cross, the Noi Orizonturi organization and the Cluj Napoca Scouts.

Meet Alex. Alex is 21 years old and is a fresh graduate of Political
Sciences at the College of Political, Administrative and Communication
Sciences of the Babeș -Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca . He started
working as a volunteer for the P ATRIR association in Cluj in his last
year of studies. By the time he graduates university he enrolls as a
volunteer at the Cluj Napoca Volunteering Centre (CNVC) . He works as
a volunteer there for nearly two years while also starting his master
degree in European Business and Project Man agement. After almost
two years of volunteering at the CNVC he is offered a paid partnership
with them and works for one year and a half. During the last half year at CNVC, Alex also gets a job at a company from Bucharest, running
social projects, named KC MC. One of the programs Alex is involved in
is a social economy project where the company starts a campaign to
obtain jobs for non employed individuals. After 6 months of working
two jobs Alex decides he needs a bit more time for himself and he
decides to quit on his partnership with CNVC, staying only at KCMC.

34
After one more year, Alex takes advantage of his accumulated
knowledge and his very large network of people being in contact with
from different domains to look for a different job, landing as an
Account Manager at a web development company from Cluj Napoca,
NetLogiq. He works extremely hard and manages to become an
Executive Director in only two years. After one more year with
NetLogiq, Alex decides it's time for a change again, but this time the
transition would be easier with all the accumulated knowledge and
experience. He obtains a Product Owner position at BetFair, one of
the largest online betting website.

So the transition, in the example we saw above, in not that large number of years , is
incredible, and it all started with volunteering. All the experiences, activities and projects
that Alex has been through and the people he met and got in contact with in Cluj Napoca,
influenced and determined him into making his mind of the direction in which he wished to go, and created a future for himself.

The most important thing individuals learn through volunteering activities is to get
to know themselves better, and to realize what they want to do in the future and what is
the path that they really wish to take . Most people start to have this image during their
volunteering practices.

Chapter number 4 talks about NGOs in general and looks at the existing
information about the number of NGOs in Cluj Napoca during 1990 and 2003 and
then again for 2013 and 2016. We also take a look at unemployment rates in different
Romanian counties, including Cluj and we have a best practice example, of a young individual who managed to create a successful path for himself after finishing his
volunteering internship.

35
❺ Research report /// Data analysis

⑤① Research objectives
The main objective s of this research are:
● revealing if long term volunteering has any effect on young people ’s
performances, attitudes and skills at their workplace
● seeing the difference between youngsters who have completed long term
volunteering programs and the rest of their colleagues, on similar positions,
at their workplace
● supervisors/managers attitudes, in Romania, toward current employees
that have been involved in long term volunteering projects
● finding out if completing such a program does actually help a young person
get on the labor market or start their own business

⑤② Hypothesis
Most of the times, volunteering activities have effects on our lives, and most of the
times these effects are positive. We tend to be more sociable, involved, self -aware and
skillful with different tasks and overall, the activity of volunteering opens up numerous
windows of opportunities. Telling by the testaments of the people who have done it,
volunteering is one of the best things an individual can do to obta in a level of self
improvement and self confidence.
In this research we are looking for the facts and numbers, to reveal just how much
volunteering programs can influence us into acquiring new sets of skills, if we actually use
these skills at our current jobs, what is the level that our other colleagues are at, in regard
to these skills and attitudes and if our managers do or do not appreciate our former
implication in long term volunteering activities and if they see a certain nurture or spark in
our performances compared to the others.

36
⑤③ Methodology
In order to obtain accurate information we will use qua ntitative research tools,
more explicitly, a survey through a questionnaire . We have sent questionnaires to
managers/supervisors to assess the abilities, skills and attitudes of some of their
employees who have been former volunteers . We have also asked them to make a
comparison with their other subordinates, working on similar positions.
Because access to these managers was nearly impossible to get, we have asked the
former volunteers to give us a hand, and hand them the questionnaire.
We have chosen this method because we believe the results will be much more
objective than a former volu nteer auto evaluating himself/herself and we can easily see the
difference at the workplace between former volunteers and other employees on similar
positions, through the impartial comparison of the same person, the manager. Out of the
initial total numbe r of 58, we have managed to filter out 30 former long term volunteers,
adequate for this research. The gathering of data will be sent mostly via email, from the
individual’s superiors at their respected workplaces.
The questionnaire consists of two more c omplex questions and another four semi –
open simpler question s. In the first two, the managers of former volunteers will assess
their level of certain skills at their workplace and then compare it to the rest of the
employees who have not been involved in volunteering activities in the past, and work on
similar positions. We have chosen the skills in the questionnaire by looking at a number of
surveys and researches, on volunteering activities developing useful skills. Among the surveys, we mention “ 20 Skill s you learn volunteering to help you get a job”
20, “Mobility of
young volunteers across Europe ”21 and “ Skills you can learn by volunteering ”22. Out of the total
skills mentioned in these researches, we have chosen the ones that are the most
appropriate , meaningful and useful in a workplace environment for young employees and
their managers .

20 (Youth Volunteer Corps 16th May 2014)
21 (European Union n.d.)
22 (Twin Work & Volunteer 5th November 2013)

37
The last four questions are mostly addressed to the attitude and knowledge of the
manager/supervisor towards volunteering in general and the positive, negative or pass ive
effects that it has on the individual’s performances while at their jobs.
Using the questions in the form, we wish to create an aggregate of information that
will give us a better image of how former volunteers perform in comparison with their
colleagues at their workplace, how successful they are in their effort to adapt to the job
market and most importantly, if they have any kind of leverage by being former volunteers .
The questionnaire is addressed to the manager of the person in question in order t o obtain
a more objective, outside look at the individual’s skills, performances, attitude and
efficiency at work.
We have also sent smaller questionnaires to the former volunteers, for them to fill
out, in order to see what skills they believe they have attained and what skills they have
improved during their volunteering programs , which would be helpful for their current
jobs. Comparing these results with the ones from their managers/supervisors might lead to
some interesting results, especially when the volunteer’s questions are open questions.
The individuals selected to participate in the investigation are currently working in
Cluj Napoca, Romania and have had to complete a volunteering program that lasted a
minimum of 2 months. When we say completio n of a volunteering program we refer to a
full-time dedication to a volunteering activity (4 to 8 hours per day, 5 days a week), we will
mainly focus on European Voluntary Program participants.

⑤④ Interview data analysis
The first thing we found when starting this research is that, it’s quite hard to get
somebody’s manager/supervisor to write a review of that individual without us having
direct contact with the supervisor and then asking them to mail the response back to us.
The second thing: we have contacted 58 former volunteers, out of which the
majority (8 6.2%), have been former EVS volunteers, meaning they have been volunteering
abroad , mostly in other European countries. It appears a high number out of them, 34.5%

38
out of the total number to be more exact, have remained abroad after their volunteering
programs ended, therefore making them inadequate for our research. Out of the initial
total number of 58, 20 people were working abroad , 4 did not agree to send our interview
guide to their supervisor and another 4 are working at their own business, which is good,
but they were not adequate for our research, therefore leaving us with a total sample of 3 0
former volunteers working in Cluj Napoca.
The majority of these individuals being involved in European Voluntary Service
rather than local volunteering opportunities is due to obvious reasons, traveling abroad is
more interesting for the highest number of volunteers, on top of that, the European
Voluntary Service program offers food, accommodation, pocket money and also one of the
best medical insurances in Europe. The volunteer is also offered with free language classes
in the local language of where the program takes place. Also the thought of interacting with
foreign individuals and cultures may be a strong incentive to those traveling abroad for
volunteering.
The selected former volunteers participated in programs all over Europe and also
Romania, in many different fields, such as organizing youth festivals, caring f or parentless
children or rroma children, working with people with disabilities, rest oring organizational
centers and working as advisors in Info centers for youth. Their current professions are also a very wide palette of domains, from advertising, marketing, human resources, IT and
telecommunications to transport logistics, food packaging, education and event planning.

The strong colors at the bottom of some categories, in the graph underneat ( Image
5), represent the small number of youngsters who have volunteered locally, in Romania.
Only 13.8% out of the total number have done that.

39

Image 5

We took all the seven main skills included in the questionnaire and made an
average for each one to see where the former volunteers working full time jobs now are
doing well and where they are not thriving that much. These skills were: Communication in
the work environment, team work, adaptability and flexibility, working under stressful
conditions, conflict management, foreign language skills and last but not lea st the self
managing skills.

40

41

42

43

In the graphs above we can observe very interesting results. Foreign language skills,
team work, adaptability and flexibility and communication in the work environment all
score an average over 4 out of a maximum of 5 while working under stressful conditions,
self management and conflict management skill all score under 4. These last three are very
close in average from 3.6 to 3.7.
Foreign language is the greatest average because most of our interviewees have
been former EVS volunteers which help them a lot in increasing their local language skills during the projects through free classes, also for mostly all of them, communication with
other foreign volunteers or the organization is done in English language during their
projects. Adaptability and flexibility together with team work both score over 4, both being
key aspects in the work of a volunteer, which has to adapt to his/her environment,

44
probably tasks as well, sometimes also culture and most of the time has to work in a team,
and make it work.

The low score for the working under stressful condition skill could also be explained
by the nature and environment under which their former volunteering project took place.
Usually people do volunteering activities to meet other people, to work and connect in a
relaxed environment, sometimes a very different one than a local company that’s
continuously fighting for market share and profits. What we’re suggesting is that the
relaxed manner, in which volunteers did their work at their respected projects , previous
years, could be translated in their attitudes and manners at their current, not that relaxed, workspace.
Conflict management and self managing skills also score quite low. The reason
could also be the relaxed and open environment of non-governmental organizations, where probably not that many to no conflicts take place, and if they do, they usually get
resolved in a smooth and peaceful manner.

45

When looking at the volunteer’s answers, among their most attained skills are
adaptability and flexibility with 50% of the respondents mentioning this skill, project and self
management skills and foreign language skills, the other ones are not among our picked skills
that would be generally most useful at a workplace. Adaptability and flexibility along with
foreign language skills score high in the manager’s questionnaire as well, so that is very
similar there, but self management skill scores quite low from the manager’s point of view,
so the volunteers seem to over appreciate themselves in that aspect. Among the other often mentioned skills we also have public speaking and presentations (with 40%),
organizational skills (also 40%) and problem solving (30%).

46

Skills that the volunteers believe they have improved due to their volunteering
internship, team work is the most relevant, with 70%, and it also scores high when talking
about manager perception . Foreign languages (60%) is also in the top, and it also looks
similar to the manager’s impression, but as we have mentioned above, this result could be
due to the high number of EVS volunteers in our survey, programs where the volunteers
took language courses and had to speak English most of the time with other volunteers or
the organization’s staff. The third highest skill is communication (50%), and it’s also found in
our questionnaire, where it also scores quite high. So for the first three skills, the
volunteers got it right and pointed out skills that they believe they have improved, which is
backed up by the manager’s impressions as well. Among other skills that were mentioned
the most, we have organizational skills (30%), open mindedness (20%) and creativity (20%).

47

48
Moving on to the second question of our questionnaire, the supervisors and
managers were asked to compare the skills of the person in question, the former
volunteer, to the skills of the other employees working on similar positions. Their terms of
comparison were that the other employees were doing better, they were performing the
same or they were doing worst at that certain skill, comp ared to former volunteers in long
term programs.
Again we see that Working under stressful conditions is a skill where neither the
former volunteers nor the other current employees are doing that great. This skill is
somehow of a wildcard, most people usua lly not liking stressful conditions in general,
especially at work. so not that much of a surprise there. There are probably very few of us that like, or have gotten used to a high -stress work environment, when most of us like to
reject that idea.
The skill that has both former volunteers and the other employees performing
nearly the same at it is conflict management. Again these tow skills jump out as being the ones where our other employees perform the same as the former volunteers and where it
seems not even the enlightening vision and skills that a volunteering activity can bring,
helps.
On the other hand, at skills like communication at work, team work, adaptability and
flexibility and foreign language skills, former volunteers seem to have the edge. Most of the
supervisors and managers believe that even at self managing skills, ex -volunteers perform
a bit better than their colleagues at work (50% believe ex volunteers perform better, while
10.34% believe the average of other employees perform better).
In this comparison it is interesting to see how supervisors grade the former
volunteers compared to the average of their other colleagues and, observing who is doing
a better job at being efficient, adaptable and able to handle all kinds of different situations.
It is an essential part in discovering if former long term volunteering activities really do
have a positive effect later on when the individual enters the labor market and if he/she
has any kind of competitive advantage over the other applicants .

49

When asked if they knew that their subordinate has been involved in a long term
volunteering project that lasted at least 2 months, 43.34% of the supervisors said ” no”. The
majority of the responses are a positive with 56.66%, but the percentages are really close,
where almost half of the supervisors did not know this fact about their employees.

Image XX

50

The next question brings us the importance of volunteering activity in the eyes of
the supervisors. Almost all of them ( 96.66%) admitted that they believe volunteering, prior
or even during employment, is a very important factor in the shaping of character and
development of skills of young people. Among the most noticeable mentions, managers
have stated that volunteering a ctivities can “take you out of your comfort zone and build cha-

Image XX

51
racter”, or that “ that person will be able to develop organizational and emotional skills ” during
the volunteering activity, “ if the volunteer is mindful of the activities going on in the
organization, he/she can lear n a lot about how the economical environment is working, also the
political and social environment as well and can also develop some skills or even discover some
hidden talents” and “ diverse challenges and experiences a lways helps the youngsters ”.

The next question (image X ), has the supervisors overseeing if the effects of
volunteering had a beneficial impact for their subordinates and if they believe that similar experiences could have also helped the ones who have not been involved in such activities
in the past. Again most of them (86.66%) agree with that concept and do believe that being
a volunteer is helpful to the upcoming employee and it helps in one’s professional career
and attitude. Among their testimonies, they mention that former volunteers have “ better
communication and superior team work abilities ”, that their ” interaction with colleagues comes
naturally, better organizational skills and a better wider picture of an organizational structure
and how it ope rates ” and that volunteering has helped them gain “ positive effects in a
responsible approach of different issues that appeared at the workplace ” and “ knowledge which
is extremely helpful in their current activity but also in approaching more complex situa tions ”.
These last two questions are very important, as to see the supervisors, managers
and employers attitudes towards youth’s volunteering activities and in the case of our research they seem to embrace that idea and agree that volunteering is a cruci al part in the
development of youth, also agreeing that some employees are doing well at their current jobs, probably because they were involved in such activities in the past.
For our last question, 33.34% of the respondents admit that the former volunteers
do not lack any skill that they would need in order to complete their tasks at work. It is an incredibly high percentage, considering that 33.34% of the supervisors that we have
questioned are completely satisfied with the work performances of their, f ormer volunteer,
employees.

52

However among the other 66.66% that have mentioned their subordinates are
lacking some vital skills needed for them to perform better at work, we can find “ stringency,
tidiness”, the capability to “ delegate tasks ” and “ decision al skills”, “ accountability ” and “ higher
than necessary level of emotional implication ”.

Image XX

53
Task delegation and decisional skills fall in that same category with self managing
skills, where former volunteers don’t seem to be doing that good of a job. We will see in the
next chapter, our final conclusions based on the results of this research, which points do
we believe volunteering activities can strengthen and which do not depend that much on it
as we priory believed.
The main benefits that the experience of a volunteering program brings to the
interviewed participants are very much connected to the traveling aspect, since most of our
subjects in this research have been on EVS programs. Out of all the multitude of domains
one can choose when maki ng the decision to leave for such a program, making the wrong
choice is quite easy. EVS program councilors always advise the enthusiastic young people wishing to engage in these types of programs to choose the project and not the country, a
mistake made by many long-term volunteers. If the project specifications do not satisfy a
youngster, the place should be the least important thing that matters.

❻ Conclusions /// The good & the bad

Volunteering programs are many and divers nowadays. Youngsters jus t need the
will power and they can definitely find activities to get involved into as volunteers. A volunteer program can certainly make one more resourceful and capable of securing a
satisfying place to work.
However, as our research shows, EVS volunteers are very much inclined to stay in
the country where they finished their volunteering internship. 40%, 20 out of 50 former EVS
volunteers have stayed in foreign countries or have moved, with work, to another foreign
country. This could be a negat ive effect of EVS volunteering for young people on the
Romanian labor market. Youngsters’ experiencing EVS with its foreign cultures, diversity
and in most cases a more organized and developed system, attracts them to foreign job

54
markets, where they easily integrate, therefore making them to renounce any chance to
find good jobs at home .
As we have seen in previous chapters, studies show that youngsters usually choose
to get involved in volunteering mostly because they believe in the problem they have
signed up to resolve, because they believe it helps them with their professional career and
because it’s a great opportunity to make friends, and have some fun while you work and
learn new things. Therefore not all of the attitudes and tendencies learned in such activities
are positively transferred into a stressful, high pressure and intense level of unrest workplace.
One conclusion is that most of the skills, attitudes and principles learned during a
long term volunteering program are useful for an up comer on the job market, but
depending very much on the nature of the position at the workplace.
As we have seen above, skills like Conflict management and Working under stressful
conditions score much lower than others and former volunteers seem to be at tha t same
low level, regarding these skills, to the other employees working on similar positions.
The Self managing skill is also one that does not necessarily need to develop once
with the involvement in a volunteering activity. We believe this has got more to do with the
character and personality of the individual, rather than with training the skill. Of course
some individuals might be natural at this certain skill but some others may not develop it,
not even after 30 years of working experience.
Foreign la nguage , Adaptability and Flexibility and Team work are certainly some of the
skills that a volunteer can adopt, develop and master through a volunteering activity.
Most importantly, the last questions from our form show the importance of a
volunteering activity in the eyes of the managers and employers. If most of these people
(86.66%) believe that volunteering does make a difference as to how their employees
conduct themselves and pe rform at the workplace, this definitely puts the ex volunteers in
advantage to their other colleagues who have not been involved.

55
So therefore we can say that volunteering does not secure a job in one's future but
without a doubt makes it more accessi ble, and the majority of youngsters who have been
through volunteering programs and are now working are the living proof of that.
Young people who have been through volunteering activities do stand taller in the
eyes of their supervisors and employers and do perform better at certain tasks compared
to their colleagues.

Most participants in the survey state that the things learned during their
volunteering programs do not necessarily have a direct effect i n helping them with their
daily jobs, as adversities that they face at their workplace, but it also helps on a larger scale .
Adaptability is one of the greatest things that volunteering programs teach us, as
the job market and also the world around us will start changing and shifting at a faster
pace than ever. Adaptability is a key ingredient if in the future we are looking to succeed.
Volunteering will become more and more demanded in the future for employers
searching for quality staff and looking to invest in their human capital.

56
Questionnaire

* The answers provided here are to remain unknown to the person in question
** Please answer as objectively as possible to the questions below
*** Send the completed questionnaire at octaviangrecu@ymail.com

❶ How would you grade your subordinate, while at work, based on the following skills and
abilities (1 – lowest, 5 – highest)

Communication in the work environment
1_________2_________3_________4_________5_________

Team work
1____ _____2_________3_________4_________5_________

Adaptability & Flexibility
1_________2_________3_________4_________5_________

Working under stressful conditions
1_________2_________3_________4_________5_________

Conflict management
1_________2_________3_________4_________5_________

Foreign language skills
1_________2_________3_________4_________5_________

Self managing skills
1_________2_________3_________4_________5_________

57
❷ Please compare the grades you gave above, to the average of other subordinates that
work on similar positions, and tell us if they score higher, the same or lower
Communication in the work environment ↑ – ↓
Team work ↑ – ↓
Adaptability & Flexibility ↑ – ↓
Working under stressful condit ions ↑ – ↓
Conflict management ↑ – ↓
Foreign language skills ↑ – ↓
Self managing skills ↑ – ↓

❸ Did you know that your subordinate had taken part in a long term volunteering project,
for at least 2 months, prior to working unde r your leadership?
Yes
No

❹ Do you believe that the participation of a young person in a long term volunteering
program could have any positive effect on his/her professional career & attitude later on?
Yes / Why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________
No / Why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________

❺ Do you believe that the participation of your subordina te in a long term volunteering
program has had any positive effect on his professional career & attitude now?
Yes / Why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________
No / Why? ______________________________ _______________________________________________________________

❻ Do you think your subordinate is lacking any significant skill(s) that hinders his/hers job
performance? If yes, please mention which one(s)
1 _____________________________________________ ____________________
2 _________________________________________________________________

58
Bibliography
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
European Union / http://eacea.ec.europa.eu
European Union / http://ec.europa.eu/youth
https://en. wikipedia.org
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
"Why People Volunteer" – Paper by Thomas W. McKee (Volunteer management
speaker, trainer and consultant)
"Why volunteer?" – article by Susan J. Ellis, president Energize Inc.
"Medical Education at Harvard"
"Where's the Learning in Service Learning?" by Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles
https://www.google.ro/publicdata/
National Agency for Work Occupancy / www.anofm.ro
"Volunteering, a booming activity in Romania" – article, Dana Puscoci
www. europeanyouthcapital.org
www.erasmusplus.ro
http://assembly.coe.int
www.ongcluj.ro
Ziarul Financiar / www.zf.ro
United Health Group / unitedhealthgroup.com
Forbes Magazine / www.forbes.com
Mediafax / www.mediafax.ro
Romanian Ministry of Youth and Sport / www.mts.ro

59
European Commission / http://ec.europa.eu/
Volunteer Weekly / www.volunteerweekly.com
Student World Online / www.studentworldonline.com
European Center for Not -for-Profit Law (ECNL) / www.ecnl.org
”Volunteer Work, Informal Learning and Social Action” by Fiona Duguid,
Karsten Mundel and Daniel Schugurensky

Twin Work & Volunteer / http://www.workandvolunteer.com/

Youth Volunteer Corps / www.yvc.org

European Youth Forum / http://www.youthforum.org
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________