FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEPLOYMENT OF INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS

International Volunteer Program Framework

About

The structure of an international volunteer program provides students with valuable experience capable of creating, enhancing or improving skills in ways not possible elsewhere. Whether paid or unpaid, institutions of higher education will enhance the capacities of their students by closely monitoring their volunteer placements.

Any international volunteer program should, in principle, add to the repertoire of existing participant skills in tangible ways, allowing them to solidify what they have learnt in the classroom, test their approaches to addressing issues, or creating new opportunities for growth and development.

Whether institutions leave such volunteer experiences in the hands of third party organizations, any weakness or strength of such programs directly impact the quality of education of the students who take part of those programs. Since not all volunteer programs are created the same, institutions might observe the following considerations when creating one, or partnering with organizations that offer them:

Environment

The volunteer Environment: Common rationales organizations use to recruit volunteers include to (i) fill out a gap that a paid employee would normally occupy, and (ii) inject new ideas from new volunteers (which are not usually available from existing staff).
Preparing the groundwork: Not even the most passionate volunteer can compensate the lack focus, transparency and commitment that a placement might lack.
Formality: Volunteer organizations that treat their volunteers with the adequate level of formality similar to a paid staff tend to have higher levels of commitments from volunteers.

It is the structure of the volunteer initiative that provides students the medium from which they can make the most of their experience.

The Changing Role of Volunteering

Intercultural Skills

Universities also have common reasons to choose volunteer initiatives as a mechanism to inject into the academic lives of students intercultural skills including the ability to work with groups who don't share a similar view of how to address or assess certain issues. Other reasons include acquiring particular skills of great value for the future work of the student, and developing other competencies as required by the academic program.

In any case, international volunteer programs can be powerful tools to prepare students on multiple dimensions in the spectrum of learning, acquiring working experience and developing skills that prepare them further into new worldviews and/or perspectives.

The world of volunteering isn't longer characterized primarily by the desire of individuals to give back to the community or respond to emergencies. It is a formal and serious activity that requires similar levels of formalities and expectations as most paid positions.

Whether organizing a volunteer initiative directly by the university, or offering it via a third party requires adequate attention and recognition if the intention is to maximize the learning opportunities for students; especially in the context of acquiring skills and competencies not easily available at home, universities should equate volunteering to any learning initiatives of high impact.

As a result, any attempt to offer students with international volunteer program experiences should have rigorous and strong commitment from the institution to ensure that such opportunity makes the most of students' time and effort.

Placing students on an international volunteer placement is a great opportunity to advance skill development including intercultural competencies. As such, higher education institutions can consider the following when working with a third party:

The partner understands and is familiar with the expectations and responsibilities of a university or college.
The volunteer placements should prioritize hosting students so they can inject new ideas and approaches to existing issues of the community (rather than recruiting students as replacements for paid positions).
Have the structures in place so students (in this case volunteers) operate in a similar fashion as paid staff.
Ensure that the learning outcomes of the volunteer positions are directly in line with the stated learning and experiential goals of the academic programs.
For the volunteer partner to allow the institution to exercise its role as the ultimate guarantor of education training in the spirit of their accord before, during and after the volunteer program.