Motivation and enhancement of competences in volunteers returning from International Voluntary Service (IVS)

Scholars have asserted that IVS promotes international understanding, shared knowledge across cultures, global commitment, international cooperation and peace. As a consequence of their experiences, overseas volunteers have positive benefits in terms of language, communication, leadership, problem-solving and intercultural skills, as well as an increased employment and earning potential. These competences are crucial in today’s societies (including the job market). Despite this, there are few studies on people’s motivations to engage in IVS and how institutional programs can make these experiences valuable.The aim of the study (involving 77 volunteers returning from IVS) was to investigate: 1) their motivations to volunteer and their intercultural competence; 2) whether and to what extent, during their period abroad, those conditions that seem to favour an improvement in intercultural competence, were present. These conditions are: immersion (quality of relationships with the members of the host culture), guided reflection (a reflexive appraisal of previous beliefs and assumptions), contact reciprocity (shared goals and perceived equal status with the members of the host culture) and institutional support.Motivation was assessed by means of the Volunteer Functional Inventory (Clary et al., 1998), plus 5 items specifically referring to potential reasons to engage in IVS (acquiring intercultural competence, adventure seeking, changing something in one’s life, escaping from everyday life, using dead time). Levels of perceived intercultural competence, guided reflection, contact reciprocity and institutional support were assessed by means of a questionnaire (Lough, 2011). To assess the degree of immersion, 5 ad hoc items were used.The results showed that the main functions that volunteerism may serve (values, understanding, social, career, protective and enhancement) are linked to specific individual motivations to volunteer according to various different correlational patterns and that the structure of this motivation is influenced by the varying degrees of immersion during placement. Moreover, self-reported levels of intercultural competence are related to the degree of guided reflection and contact reciprocity.