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1. Policy Framework

2. Existing arrangements

Policy Framework

There is no existing policy framework for skills recognition specially for volunteering activities. However, the recognition and validation of the learning and work experience, including in non-formal and informal learning environments, is been long actual in education and youth policies. There is a legal framework allowing prior learning and work experience to be recognized and validated in the formal education system. Also, for example, youth workers can obtain a qualification through a procedure of validating prior learning and work experience, including voluntary work.

Starting from 2021, there is a new Youth Sector Development Plan up to 2035 (Noortevaldkonna arengukava 2021-2035) that brings out ensuring that the competencies acquired in youth work are interpreted, valuated, awarded, and recognised in formal education.

Existing arrangements

There are different tools for skills recognition in youth volunteering. Below are listed a few of the existing arrangements:

• The Volunteer Pass is a document that presents skills acquired through volunteering activities. The Pass has been developed after the examples of Youthpass and Europass. It uses the lifelong learning 8 key competences framework for presenting and analyzing competences acquired in voluntary activities. In general, the list of skills is written up by the volunteer him- or herself; it is a self-assessment exercise. The Pass is primarily used as a tool, which aids the volunteer to analyze and understand what competences he or she has acquired during a volunteering activity. Also, educational institutions, firms, and NGOs may take the information presented in a person’s pass into account when selecting students or recruiting employees. However, taking the information presented in the pass is up to the organizations. There is no official system of recognition of the pass which would define the status and value of the information presented there. ​
• The Youthpass is one way to recognize non-formal learning and make learning outcomes visible, primarily within the framework of the Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps, and Youth Exchanges programs.