European Partners Meet in Madrid to Launch VolComp Project on the Recognition of Volunteering Competences

On 14 and 15 January 2026, European partners gathered in Madrid, Spain, for the kick-off meeting of VolComp – the Transnational Competence Framework for Volunteering, a new Erasmus+ project aimed at improving the recognition and validation of competences acquired through volunteering across Europe.

The two-day meeting marked the official start of the project and brought together organisations from Spain, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal to align on objectives, methodology, governance, and next steps. Discussions focused on establishing a shared understanding of the project scope and ensuring a coordinated approach to developing a robust, inclusive, and transferable competence framework for volunteering.

During the meeting, partners reviewed the project’s overall structure and work plan, including the forthcoming transnational study, the development of the competence framework, and the strategies for alignment with existing European competence ecosystems. Particular attention was given to ensuring coherence with European tools and frameworks that support transparency, mobility, and lifelong learning.
The consortium also agreed on common quality assurance principles, partner roles and responsibilities, internal communication mechanisms, and dissemination strategies. These elements will be essential to guarantee that VolComp delivers a framework that is practical, user-friendly, and relevant for volunteers, volunteering organisations, validation bodies, and policymakers across Europe.
The kick-off meeting concluded with a shared commitment from all partners to work collaboratively towards strengthening the visibility, recognition, and social value of volunteering, while contributing to greater comparability of competences across countries and sectors.

This project is an initiative of the Spanish Volunteer Platform (Spain) in collaboration with CESUR (Spain), Munster Technological University (Ireland), CSVnet (Italy), and the Portuguese Volunteer Confederation (Portugal). The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

This project is co-funded by the European Union. The opinions and viewpoints expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Spanish National Agency (SEPIE). Neither the European Union nor SEPIE can be held responsible for them.