Swiss volunteers to earn job “certificates”
Volunteers in Switzerland are to gain recognition for their work under a new initiative designed to reward their efforts.
Under the scheme, which was launched in Bern on Wednesday, volunteers can build up a personal “Volunteer Certificate” listing their work experience, which can then serve as a reference when they apply for jobs.
The project is the brainchild of International Year of Volunteers Forum Switzerland (iyv-forum.ch) and is being backed by the Swiss business community and the government.
According to the group, which is made up of around 80 Swiss organisations working with volunteers, a quarter of the population is already involved in voluntary activity of some kind.
Providing proof
“With the help of this document, people who are volunteering in Switzerland can, for example, prove to employers that they did voluntary work,” Guido Münzel, director of iyv-forum.ch, told swissinfo. “For young people this could be very important when it comes to applying for their first job.”
The Federal Office for Professional Training and Technology is printing 60,000 Volunteer Certificates, and requests for 32,000 have already been received.
Monika Stocker, head of Zurich city council’s social affairs department, which has endorsed the initiative, said it was important for volunteers to receive recognition for skills gained through their work.
Switzerland’s leading retail group, Migros, which is one of the sponsors of “iyv-forum.ch”, has said it will take Volunteer Certificates into account when recruiting new staff.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.