Building Students’ Competencies Through Volunteering: Lessons Learnt from Pro Bono Pilots at UNWE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37075/YB.2020.2.02Keywords:
Transferable competencies, Soft skills, Volunteering, Pro bonoAbstract
The topics of transferable competencies and soft skills creation have become a very important part of the current understanding of quality in higher education. Building them through volunteering and pro bono, on the other hand, are rarely practiced and studied in Bulgaria.The article aims to outline ways to implement volunteering as part of the teaching and training processes. It also presents preliminary results of a study on the motivation and satisfaction of students from the University of National and World Economy who have participated in three pilot pro bono programmes in the period of March 2019 – June 2020.References
Mitev, Petar-Emil Ivanov, Popivanov, Boris Petrov, Kovacheva, Siyka Kostadinova, & Simeonov, Parvan (2019). Bulgarian Youth 2018/2019. Sofia: Friedrich Ebert. ISBN: 978-954-2979-46-3
Toncheva-Zlatkova, V. (2015). Informal Learning in the Lifelong Learning System. Doctoral Readings, pp. 126-135.
Toncheva-Zlatkova, Violeta Chavdarova (2015). Institutional Coordination in the Validation of Results from Non-Formal Education. UNSS: V. Toncheva-Zlatkova.
Angova, Stella, Valchanov, Ivan, & Nikolova, Maria (2019). Dynamics of Communication Professions and Competencies. Yearbook of UNWE, 305-320. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37075/yb.2019.1.16
Chadha, Deesha (2006). A curriculum model for transferable skills development. Engineering Education, 1(1), 19-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11120/ened.2006.01010019
Cinque, Maria (2016). “Lost in translation”. Soft skills development in European countries. Tuning Journal for Higher Education, 3(2), 389-427. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/tjhe-3(2)-2016pp389-427
ECTS Users' Guide 2015. (2015). European Commission. URL: https://publications.europa.eu/en/ publication-detail/-/publication/da7467e6-8450-11e5-b8b7-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 2020-11-07)
TNS Political & Social (2018). European Youth Report. European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. Flash Eurobarometer 455 – TNS Political&Social, January 2018
Justice, Christopher, Rice, James, & Warry, Wayne (2009). Developing Useful and Transferable Skills: Course Design to Prepare Students for a Life of Learning. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2009.030209
Muhamad, S. (2012). Graduate Employability and Transferable Skills: A Review. Advances in Natural and Applied Sciences, 6(6), 882-885.
Rusanova, L. (2017). An Attempt to Define the Soft Skills Necessary for the Social Worker. Proceedings of University of Ruse, pp. 19-23.
Toncheva-Zlatkova, V. (2018). Learning by Doing: Insights from Project-Based Teaching. International conference "Studies-Business-Society: present and future insights IV", pp. 103-114.
Torres-Coronas, T., Vidal-Blasco, M., & Simón-Olmos, M. (2014). Aligning Educational Outcomes to Boost Employment and Workforce Employability. Handbook of Research on Education and Technology in a Changing Society (Ed. Wang, V. X.), pp. 407-417.
Whittemore, S.T. (2018). Transversal Competencies Essential for Future Proofing the Workforce. URL: https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/sites/default/files/partner/asset/files/skilla-transversal-skills-future-proof.pdf (accessed 06/ August /2020)
Yordanova, D. (2017). Requirements of Employers Concerning University Graduates' Transferable Skills: Methodology for Assessment. Proceedings of University of Ruse, pp. 88-94.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Denitsa Gorchilova (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright to their works.
All publications are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.