AEGEE had the chance to send two representatives and be among those ten selected participants who can contribute the most to the seminar on Youth, Entrepreneurship, Volunteering and Corporate Social Responsibility which was organised by the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion on 25th of September in Brussels. The Youth Forum, the European Economic and Social Committee, CSR Europe, JADE, the Young Entrepreneurs of the European Union were present during a day long seminar, among other organisations.
One of the main reasons behind the conference was to discuss the question whether the volunteering can facilitate and support the transition from education to work, and whether it can serve as a tool to become a successful entrepreneur. Europe is still suffering from the severe crisis, and youth unemployment is one of the most serious and worrying consequences, but what can we, youth, do if there is a serious lack of demand on the labour market? Well, we can create a job for ourselves! Because a good idea is not enough, you need skills like creativity, flexibility, ability to work in and manage a team… When you are a volunteer, these skills can be easily gained with your everyday work, without belonging to those few people who were born with entrepreneurial skills. This not-certified knowledge is rarely learned by formal education, that’s why the role of the associations like AEGEE is crucial in today’s society.
The three topics were interconnected: apart from the preparatory role of volunteering to the successful entrepreneurial life, it has been also discussed how important role the companies can play through Corporate Social Responsibility, while creating a win-win situation for both the enterprises and the society. For the company itself it can be related to the increased competitiveness, improved image and closer contact with the stakeholders, such as their clients, and it can also bring financial benefits for instance the cost saving and tax benefits. On the other hand, the renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility states that the companies which implement a good CSR strategy can help to reach the goals of Europe 2020 in terms of achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, job creation and increased employment, something very beneficial for our societies nowadays. It was argued by Jan Noterdaeme that the companies’ support enables NGOs and volunteering organisations to create and organise projects which have an important and positive results for the society.
Sometimes this help can create butterfly effect and the beneficiary could make miracles due to the initial help. AEGEE also tries to be an example in social responsibility and we believe that the underprivileged but outstanding members should also have the same opportunities as the others, therefore there is a possibility to support them through AEGEE’s Social Responsibility Fund, and to give them a chance to attend AEGEE and external conferences which are not accessible for them otherwise.
At the seminar AEGEE could share its expertise in the field of empowerment of young people, and the importance of giving young people the space to gain skills and experience in order to become more prepared to the professional world: indeed, young active people will be able to claim that we have already taken risks, developed our own ideas, worked on project, and discussed in multicultural and interdisciplinary teams. It was also mentioned during the conference that youth organization and volunteering can give young people the space for trying new things out, and failing and learn from their mistakes. It was quite sad to hear that, unfortunately, big organization do not really give the same recognition to these experience as they do for instance to internships.
A positive point of this meeting was the very numerous representation of the business world, and we do hope that events like this, and the presence of young people, will help reaching a point of improved recognition of volunteering as an important element towards a future employment.
Written by Beata Matuszka, Network and Human Resources Director of the Comité Directeur 2012-2013