The European Solidarity Corps has just been renewed by the European Commission for the seven-year period 2021-2027. The news on the European Solidarity Corps were revealed through the publication of the official Guide, available since April 15th in English.
There are 2 main new features in the European Solidarity Corps Guide:
- the Lead Organisation’s Quality Label, necessary for any organisation wishing to be the lead partner of an ESC project;
- the non-renewal of the ESC Training and Job, which is the subject of this article.
The End of ESC Traineeship and Jobs
Since its launch in 2018, the European Solidarity Corps envisaged a new activity, which promised to revolutionise the field of job placement in the field of volunteering and European cooperation, the so-called ESC Traineeship and Jobs. This action gave organisations the opportunity to welcome young people, foreign or from their own country, both through internships and work experience. Such possibility went with financial support for the host organisation. A budget of €5 per day to the intern/worker for the first 6 months and the coverage of any travel at the beginning and end of the experience.
However, the ESC Traineeship and Jobs had met with little interest among the organisations active in the European Solidarity Corps, which were basically more interested in voluntary activities. Therefore, at the end of 2020, the National Agencies organised several meetings to evaluate the reasons for the low participation and possible improvements. Beneficiary organisations were also part of these meetings, including Associazione Joint, which since 2018 had managed 3 projects in this area and involved 6 trainees and workers. However, despite several positive aspects that emerged in the analysed projects, the Commission decided not to renew this action.
The consequences for the ESC Programme
After all, what are the consequences of the ESC Traineeship and Jobs disappearance?
The main consequences identified by the experts of Europlanning Courses are:
- The absence of specific support upon new staff within organisations active in activities promoting European solidarity;
- The increase of budget for voluntary activities;
- The simplification of the ESC Programme and in particular of its Guide: the elimination of a little-used action that forced to use generic terms to refer to the beneficiaries (not only volunteers but also trainees and workers) will probably facilitate the understanding of the ESC Programme to the neophytes and to the many organisations that already had problems in finding their way around.
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