Abstract:

Various branches of humanities knowledge – sociology, psychology, pedagogy, philosophy – show interest in the problematics of volunteering as a phenomenon of social life nowadays. This phenomenon is interpreted as a form of social empathy, which is a necessary condition for development of the civil society.

It is obvious that the more people are involved in volunteering, the greater the degree of social solidarity and the healthier the society is.

Researchers, who study volunteering, are increasingly paying attention to its educational potential. First of all, it concerns the training of specialists, whose professional activity itself is closely associated with manifestations of social solidarity – teachers, social workers, lawyers, doctors, etc. However, experience in volunteering activities contributes to the professional development in any field – volunteering is considered as the environment for professional skills tests of students. Formation of socially oriented life values, acquiring emotionally experienced professional background constitute the potential for personal and professional growth and increase competitive advantage of a future specialist in the labor market.

The volunteer program “Ambassadors of the Russian Language in the World”, which is aimed at spreading of the Russian language and the Russian culture, was launched in the autumn of 2015 by the Pushkin Institute. The ideas of the program are close to programs like English Teaching Assistant or Teaching English Mission Trips, however, volunteer expeditions within the program are shorter (from a week to a month) and cover not only foreign countries (CIS countries, Europe, Latin America etc.) but also regions of the Russian Federation, as well as summer camps in Russia and abroad. The goal of the program is to conduct interesting interactive classes on the Russian language and culture through not only attracting new people to learn Russian but also keeping up interest in the language among those who have been studying it for a long time.

Any person, who is fluent in Russian (including foreigners) and aged between 18 and 30, with any education and professional training, can become a participant of the program. The participants get acquainted with the methodology of the program and undergo competitive admissions at the youth forums, after which they go on their first expedition. The training of volunteers resembles the CELTA program, in which the key factor in obtaining a certificate (in this program it is a badge and status of an ambassador of the Russian language) is not fluency in English as much as demonstration of professional growth in the training process. According to the results of the first expedition, which is also a part of the training, the participants can become full members of the team, get a second chance or be excluded from the program.

The purpose of our research is to determine what new knowledge, skills and competencies volunteers participating in the Program acquire. In order to answer this question we have conducted a survey of volunteers and program organizers, inviting them to answer questions on what does the work in expeditions give them in a personal, social and professional aspect. We note that after participating in the program many volunteers have decided to develop themselves as teachers, and also have emphasized acquisition and development of soft skills such as responsibility, teamwork, speed of adaptation, problem solving, etc.

Keywords:

Volunteering, language teaching, professional development, professionsl competences, soft skills.