E-Learning Course on Measuring Volunteer Work

Volunteer work, often referred to simply as “volunteering,” is an essential renewable resource for social, economic, and environmental progress all over the world. The contribution of volunteers to the well-being of individuals and communities plays an important role in keeping societies and communities together, building social cohesion and meeting the needs of many disadvantaged groups facing daily life challenges or during times of crisis. Recognizing this, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda calls on governments to work closely with volunteer groups on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve this, however, basic information on the number and characteristics of persons working willingly and without pay to support others is needed. Such information can help target better economic and social policies. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of volunteer work in society, however, little sustained effort has gone into measuring and analysing volunteer working most countries. This course presented tools and recommendations provided by the 19th ICLS, with a particular focus on the LFSs add-on module that experts could use to produce statistics on volunteer work. By complementing existing data on employment and unpaid housework, statistics on volunteer work can facilitate a more complete understanding of the multiple ways in which people produce goods and services to satisfy their own and others’ needs. The objective is to make available comparative cross-national data on a significant form of work that is growing in importance but is often ignored or rarely captured in traditional economic statistics. OBJECTIVES The main objective of the course is to “provide participants with the necessary skills to collect, measure, and analyse data to measure volunteer work. Moreover, the course will also emphasize the latest 19th ICLS resolutions concerning the LFSs add-on module that contribute to the measurement and analysis of volunteer work.” CONTENT • Importance of measuring volunteer work, global estimates, policy relevance. • Key statistical concepts and definitions of Volunteer Work. • National practices in measuring volunteer work — data sources, approaches and topics covered. • The importance of collecting quality data. • The LFSs add-on Module – development phases. • The LFSs add-on Module – structure and content. • Identification of volunteer workers. • Characteristics of volunteering activities. • Deriving key variables to identify volunteers. • Using ISCO-08 and ISIC to classify volunteer work and organizations mobilizing volunteers. • Calculating and interpreting the key indicators of volunteer work. • Preparing tabulations for publication.