At the Austrian Citizen Science Conference in June 2022, we (then still as PWA) held the workshop "The potential of making competences acquired through Citizen Science visible" together with Schweiz forscht. The workshop showed that the acquisition of competencies in Citizen Science projects is rarely discussed. However, it is very important to demonstrate the competences acquired. To make your work easier, we have created sample certificates and templates which you can use.
There are good reasons for recognizing acquired skills:
- Skills are acquired in Citizen Science in the same way as in other (voluntary) social engagement.
- The training of citizens should be seen and used as an important development opportunity within a project that offers additional added value. The same applies to academic researchers.
- Proof of voluntary social commitment is increasingly relevant for job applications. For this reason, it is generally advisable to provide volunteers with proof of their commitment.
- If possible, everyone involved in the project should know and be able to name the skills they have acquired. For academic researchers, it is worth thinking not only about technical and methodological skills, but also about other areas such as social and communication skills, as these are precisely the areas where a large part of the skills acquisition takes place in Citizen Science projects.
- The area of individual development of people is often neglected as an (additional) impact of Citizen Science projects. If all participants know what skills they have acquired, the impact of Citizen Science is generally increased.
- By recording the participants and their commitment, project leaders not only have the necessary transparency and the opportunity to evaluate their projects appropriately, but also important indications of the overall value of their project.
To illustrate what such certificates can look like, we have created four fictitious examples. Curious to know what contribution Baran Bürgerin, Cinthia Citizen, Pinar Partizipativ and Valon Volunteer have made to various projects? In addition to these four examples , we have also created two templates for you to download and edit - one is a certificate of participation and the other is a course certificate.
Fictitious example certificates (in German)
Baran Bürgerin (PDF, 49 KB)
Cinthia Citizen (PDF, 48 KB)
Pinar Partizipativ (PDF, 51 KB)
Valon Volunteer (PDF, 48 KB)
Templates
Certificate of participation (DOCX, 193 KB)
Course Certificate (DOCX, 61 KB)
