Volunteerism

Volunteerism is the willingness of an individual or of a group of people to invest their time, effort, knowledge and skills for the benefit of another person, organization or society, without payment or any other kind of profit. Most often it is practiced in religious, humanitarian, social and non-governmental organizations. Voluntary work is very useful because it helps the unemployed, or people who are just about to start seeking a job, to gain experience, and also to maintain the skills they already have.

Through voluntary work people raise their value on the labour market. Things that usually motivate people to volunteer are the wish for the development of a society, providing and giving help to a certain person or group, but also to get work experience and improve their skills. Besides that, volunteering helps the unemployed by involving them in the labour community and in that way reduces the negative effects of being unemployed. These persons, besides getting new experiences and skills, improve their business relations and connections, so it is very common that they are offered full employment, because of their good work.

In a study of the World Bank, “The Evaluation of the Serbia’s Labour Market”, the youth unemployment rate is very high, 47.7%, while for example the EUROSTAT statistics show that the youth unemployment rate in Romania is 21.4%, in Bulgaria 19.5% and the EU 27 it is just 17.2% which all are significantly lower than Serbia’s.

One of the  reasons for such a low rate of youth employment in Serbia is that a large number of employers request previous experience within the same area of work of at least two years, and it is a big problem for young graduates applying for jobs.

Because of that, the adoption of a law on volunteerism and a clear definition of the rights of volunteers, which would introduce volunteerism in big firms and corporations as a form of internship and also give the employers certain benefits, would greatly contribute to the solution of Serbia's problem of youth unemployment.