Learning partnership 2011 - 2013

Learning to reign is easy, governing difficult
Johann W. von Goethe

In the European Union about 94 millions adults are spending time as volunteers. In their free time they train young people and peers artistic skills and sports, care for animals and the environment. At least half of these activities are coordinated by non-governmental organisations (NGO), which strongly depend on volunteers, who work in leading positions to generate stability and continuity. For many NGOs these governance tasks are crucial, because the elected volunteers are legally, financially and morally responsible for the organisation.

With this proposed partnership, seven NGOs explore together how to better prepare and train volunteers taking over leadership and governance responsibilities. The training needs have enormously augmented over the last ten years. Apart from communication and organisational skills, European networking and fundraising, managing volunteers and leading efficient meetings are also required for NGO leaders and board members. In order to create synergy effects, the NGOs, which are all offering various adult education trainings, want to jointly revue and extend their training programmes and to strengthen the collaboration at the European level. The NGOs will greatly gain from a professionalised management – and last not least, the learners, who take part in the various training activities carried out by the participating organisations, will benefit.

The trained volunteers with governance responsibilities benefit from the trainings on various levels: motivation and proficiency is increased but also employability and soft skills are enhanced. The lifelong learning community is invited to share and discuss the results.

More information regarding the different issues can be found here: FORUM

Overview: the different stations of our learning journey:

Munich (Germany) – Communication with new media - October 2011 »
Cracow (Poland) – Fundraising – December 2011 »
Vyhlidka (Czech Republic) – Cooperation on the European level – February 2012 »
Alsopahok (Ungarn) – Teambuilding – Mai 2012 (Programm deutsch / englisch)
Bozen (Südtirol) – Moderation – September 2012 (Programm deutsch / English)
Brasov (Rumänien) – Freiwilligenmanagement – November 2012 (Programm deutsch / Englisch)
Oberwesel (Deutschland) – Verhandlungsmanagement – Mai 2013 (Programm deutsch / Englisch)