"EaSY_ Evaluate Soft skills in International Youth volunteering is a 24 months project managed by FOCSIV to foster the assessment of transversal skills acquired upon non formal learning experiences, in particular Youth International volunteering. In recent years the number of young people having international volunteering experiences has particularly increased thanks to National and European programmes, such as the EVS, the Servizio Civile Universale in Italy, the Service Civique and the Volontariat de Solidarité Internationale - VSI in France, EU AId Volunteers, the Voluntary missionary services in Portugal and so on. Notwithstanding these experiences are recognized as highly formative for the Youth, young people face difficulties in having such competencies socially recognized into the labour market. Steps forward towards the recognition of professional skills both at national and European level have been made, while nothing has been done about soft skills recognition so far, even if soft skills are considered as essential to guarantee effective job performance and active citizenship.In order to contribute to soft skills recognition and valorisation of Youth International volunteering experiences, FOCSIV, FEC e the European Guild - with long term experience in the volunteering field- and Elidea, I-O psychologists, cooperated in the present project. The project aimed at elaborating a Model of Soft skills assessment and grading. The model was used to develop specific training tools for Youth workers: a Guide to enhance young people soft skills in preparation to international volunteering and the second one to support orientation upon the international experience. Moreover an online interactive platform was created to provide young people with a soft-skills self-assessment test to measure the soft skills developed. The Model and the tools produced were field tested on a sample of youth workers (65) and young people (400) in hree Countries: Italy, France and Portugal. The results of the field test and the training were used to evaluate the efficiency and functionality of the Model and of the tools produced. All the intellectual outputs are open source and freely accessible on the platform www.easy-softskills.eu. The methodology used is based on a down-up and learner-centered approach, focus on the centrality of young people and youth workers. The EaSY Model was indeed created through a mapping activity on International Volunteering experiences in the countries involved, with young volunteers' interviews and youth workers' focus groups. The present project produced a significant impact on the Youth involved, who became more conscious on the learning dimension of volunteering in terms of soft skills and were more able to valorize the experience for future employabiliity. Moreover thanks to the Online test results, young people may use a concret Passport of transversal skills to integrate the existing European instruments (Europass mobility, Youthpass certification, European Curriculum) to attest soft skills in a more objective and effective way. The youth workers inolved benefitted as well from the project and its tools, professionalizing their role and improving their capacity to guide young people during non formal learning experiences (particularly international youth volunteering). Similarly, organisations active in the International Volunteering sector acquired more competences to offer highly formative experiences to young people. Considering the high levels of the project' s results, the partners were invited to different EU events (i,e. EU Validation Festival organised by the Commission in June, 14th - 15th 2018 in Brussels and as expert to the Peer Learning Activity organised by the DG Education in Brussels on the 22nd-23rd of January 2019). Finally, the project was awarded with the LifeLong learning Award as the best practice in the category ""validation"" in 2018."

»E-tick: is an ethical communication platform for young volunteers«. It was initially an 18- month project created by Zavod Voluntariat and other partners to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes based on critical thinking, ethical communication and intercultural awareness among young people, with the main focus being on volunteers. Due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, we were forced to temporarily postpone certain dissemination activities so we extended the project to 33 months. Five non-governmental organization from four countries and in the field of international volunteering and global learning participated in the project: Zavod Voluntariat from Slovenia as the project leader and Association Humanitas from Slovenia, Comhlamh from Ireland, INEX SDA from Czech Republic and FOCSIV from Italy as partner organizations.The aim of the project was to support young volunteers and other young people interested in global learning and understanding the importance of ethical communication and its application in their contexts (experience in international volunteering or non-formal learning experience in global learning contexts through: seminars, workshops, etc.), through an online interactive platform on global learning topics with an emphasis on ethical communication. The more prepared the volunteers are for their international experience the more likely they are to have a positive impact on the lives of others and to remain engaged in democratic and civic field after returning back home.We decided to do this project because at the level of the non-governmental sector in European countries there is no single tool for preparing young people for international volunteer projects in the countries of the global south, with an emphasis on ethical communication with the focus on equal treatment of all people. We also found out during the preparation of young people that they need this in depth knowledge to better prepare for the experience in the global learning context while not having the time to participate in multi-day trainings. The online course thus allows them to schedule their time and learn independently from home from their screens. As part of the project, we carried out the following activities: - Conducting a partnership meeting and training in Brno in the Czech Republic, where we agreed on partnership roles, reviewed administrative matters, created a common understanding of the concepts of ethical communication and related topics such as critical thinking as the basis for international volunteer projects, and prepared the basis for preparing an online course (content and graphics);- The intellectual output 1: Content preparation of the four online modules on global learning and ethical communication. Module 1: Expanding our awareness, Module 2: The power we experience in everyday communication, Module 3: Global development and volunteering, Module 4: Navigating the new age media.- The intellectual output 2: Preparation of an online training platform and a pilot phase of training testing in this phase we set the online course on its feet and included 50 people to test it and give feedback, based on which we corrected and improved the online course. The online course is available here: www.ethicalcommunication.org- Implementation of five multiplicative events for different target groups by each organization;- Carrying out other dissemination activities across all partner countries in different form and through different channels;- Interim and final reporting and project administration and management. The project and the online course received many positive responses from users (both, volunteers, young people as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations in the field of international volunteering and global learning). Positive responses were related to the extremely elaborate and quality content of the course and the learning effect and potentials for further use in learning processes of non-formal learning. Let us also be proud of the fact that the online course e-tick received the GENE (Global Education Network Europe) award – “Certificate Exemplifying Quality in Global Education”.