01/12/2024
Portugal
participants
The Community Meetings are national training events designed to foster knowledge exchange and skill development among volunteers. For the Community Meetings Minho, the focus was on employability. The goal was to help volunteers leverage their community-acquired skills for the job market and enhance ESN Portugal’s Employability Strategy through relevant participant feedback. This Strategy aimed to provide mobility students and volunteers with inclusive and accessible competence development to improve their employability in a competitive job market.
In this event, through focus groups, participants identified, debated and articulated the competencies gained through volunteering within their respective Communities. The point was to help them understand how to effectively translate these skills into career assets, which supported the Erasmus Careers' goal of helping students to understand their competencies better and plan their further career development.
In sum, the Community Meetings Minho was perfectly aligned with the Erasmus Careers project by focusing on employability, enhancing participants’ ability to translate their skills into professional strengths, and refining the Employability Strategy to improve institutional support and employer recognition.
The Community Meetings Minho was held from the 29th of November to the 1st of December 2024 in Braga, Portugal, bringing together at least 90 participants and 15 trainers, all volunteers from ESN Portugal and from ESN sections in Portugal. This national training event was structured as follows:
- Participants were organised into focus groups based on their Communities, such as Education, Human Resources, Finance, Communication and IT. Facilitated by trained moderators, the groups engaged in discussions using a semi-structured interview format, combining open-ended questions with real-world scenarios. This approach allowed participants to identify and articulate the competencies they have gained through volunteering. Discussions focused on both personal and collective skills, encouraging reflection and sharing of insights.
The results from each group compiled into a competency framework that participants can use to effectively market their skills to potential employers.
- A final coffee break facilitated additional networking and informal discussions.
To ensure the event is environmentally friendly and inclusive, transportation costs were reimbursed for those using public transport or carpooling with full vehicle occupancy. The coffee breaks featured vegetarian, vegan, and other dietary options to minimise environmental impact and make sure eveyone had their options respected. The event adopted mainly a paperless approach by utilising mostly digital materials and virtual platforms for documentation and communication. Recycling stations were implemented, and efforts made to minimise single-use plastics and the participants recieved a reusable cup in their welcome kids, that they were incentivated to use during the event. Inclusivity was always fostered by ensuring diverse representation and by creating a safe environment where all voices were heard and valued.
This event directly supported the Erasmus Careers project by helping participants gain clarity on translating their volunteering experiences into professional competencies through focus groups. On the other hand, it also helped refining ESN Portugal’s Employability Strategy, reinforcing the importance of mobility competencies and improving career development for students.
This activity is part of the project:
Erasmus Careers