Studie ursprünglich au Deutsch und Anhänge auf Deutsch

Voluntary organisations play an important role in our society, the social service rendered by volunteers is of utmost importance in our daily life. Yet, voluntary work rarely is estimated adequately or get considerable support. Training of voluntary workers is limited to what they gain as experience on the job. This study aimed at investigating whether the members of the Calcutta Project (CP) as a typical voluntary organisation are interested in a training programme within the framework of their voluntary service and whether they are ready to participate in it. A series of 7 in-depth interviews and a self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted between July and November 2001, with a response rate of 84% of a total number of 38 handouts. Half of the study sample was students, one-third young academic professionals. A wide variety of voluntary work and different levels of activity were observed. A wide majority of the respondents thinks that they learn much about joint development, management, intercultural exchange or teamwork during their activities for the CP. The development of a curriculum is considered to be of advantage for the CP as a whole as well as for the individual member, but problems like a big organizational investment were given attention, too. Problem based, interactive and practice oriented learning methods are clearly preferred by the study participants. They agree to different ways of performance assessment. A great variety of subjects are suggested for the curriculum: themes of the fields of joint development/international health, organization and project management, teamwork, communication and learning as well as problem solving skills got strong support. 24 out of 31 indicate strong interest that CP offers a curriculum, 20 are interested in taking part. Taking the results of the study into consideration together with the present situation of the CP and the position of stakeholders (e.g. STI, MGU, Medical Faculty) a framework for the curriculum is constructed. Aims of the training programme are to mediate issues of the above-mentioned subjects to the students and to improve the quality of the CP as a whole. Elements are monitoring of the practical work, teaching units, defined projects and field missions to Calcutta. [Author p. 5]