The CONVOLUT-Project

Background

The background of the project is the demographic change and the associated health consequences for the individual and the socio-economic challenges for society. Because of the so-called baby boomers, the number of people retiring will increase most in the period up to 2035 – according to the forecast of the European Commission. Therefore, CONVOLUT pursues the goal to motivate this group of people for a voluntary activity and to accompany them in the transition phase to retirement. The planned project ties in with the Decade of Healthy Ageing 2020-2030 declared by the WHO, in which people are to be given the opportunity of a healthy and long life through the optimization of physical, mental and cognitive health as well as participation in society and a self-determined life.

CONVOLUT aims to motivate people at the beginning of retirement to engage in fulfilling and socially relevant volunteer work by giving them impulses and motivating them to self-reflect on their competences and knowledge for volunteer work.

Project materials

The key point of the project is to adapt the ProfilPASS to the target group of people at the beginning of retirement and their needs. The new ProfilPASS will be developed with a clear orientation of the competence assessment towards taking up a voluntary activity. With the help of guided self-reflection, they will be supported in their decision-making process to find a suitable volunteer activity, which will ensure their quality of life and social integration into society.

In addition, supporting offers and materials, such as guides and manuals, are provided, which are suitable for the counselling work with people at the beginning of retirement in the respective partner countries. This will support counsellors in their counselling work.

As a supplement to the adapted version of the ProfilPASS, qualification materials (manual and curriculum) for counsellors are developed, which serve as a basis for the implementation of a training for counsellors.  The manual explains how to work with the adapted ProfilPASS and offers further information on working with the target group of people at the beginning of retirement. The curriculum contains guidelines and recommendations for training counsellors on the customized ProfilPASS.

After the development of these products, a total of 30 counsellors (5 from each partner country) will benefit from the training. Within the CONVOLUT project, a subsequent testing phase with the target group will take place, involving 120 individuals at the beginning of their retirement. The developed project materials as well as the training and testing phase will be evaluated on this basis and finally developed further.

After the identification of individual competences and corresponding voluntary fields of activity, participants interested in other cultures will be given the opportunity to take part in virtual roundtables on the topic of "Volunteering abroad in Europe/the European Union".