1.Introduction
The increase in voluntary work since the middle of the 1990s leads to social concern toward volunteering. As the necessity and importance of volunteering emphasized, the central and local government as well as educational institutions, religious organizations and companies strive for encouraging voluntary work so as to solve various social problems. In turn, Framework Act on Volunteer Service Activities was practiced in 2006, and active participations in non-governmental sect have been promoted (Kim and Song, 2006).
Youth volunteering in particular is being recognized as not only supplement standardized regular classes but also make students learn effectively from their behavior and experience. In the same vein, volunteer competing system for all primary and secondary school students which started from the Educational Reform of 31 March, 1995 was a milestone in promoting domestic volunteering. Also, many universities open classes and give credits related to volunteering, and encourage students to participate voluntary service more enthusiastically in developing volunteering circles (Kim et al., 2005). As a result, it is fair to say that most university students have experienced volunteering through their school life.
Voluntary work means various activities which offer talent, time, energy, materials and power for desirable changes in society without expectation of reward. Especially college student voluntary service is able to provide useful experience to establishing healthy values and ego identity which are deeply related to psychological growth task in post-adolescence. It can also be meaningful experience which gives youth positive effect and helps their occupational choice in various aspects such as developing one’s aptitude, career exploration, experiment and practice.
Although the participation rate of voluntary work in Korea increased every year since the late 1990s, the rate is still low compared to that of other leading developing countries. Moreover, individual characteristics such as gender, age, or academic background are given too much importance, and the fields of volunteering are limited (Korean Volunteering, Giving and Helping 2014, 2014). Systems and research foundations which manage, supervise and support volunteering are also incomplete and vulnerable.
In spite of these inferior conditions, social interest on voluntary service is self-transcending and the number of volunteers is on the increase. However, there is lack of interest both in academic and policy-making circles in the field of maritime & fisheries, and it is much less invigorated compared to other arenas while the importance and interest of protecting environment cannot be gainsaid.
This research will provide preliminary data of the maritime and fisheries field which contribute to voluntary service of it. It is expected to help continuous development and preservation in tandem with voluntary work. Also, this study will help to establish effective volunteer service management system and discuss maritime policies of volunteering with providing the sources of demand and supply for volunteering in the maritime and fisheries field by analyzing the university students’ participation experience.
2.The definition and types of voluntary service conducted by university students
There has been high social expectation of volunteering for university students because they are able to utilize their systematic and professional knowledge, and they are pivotal human resources with flexible time. Students who are preliminary society members designed for national development need opportunities to apply their theoretical principles learned by their schools. The volunteer activities help university students seek their aptitude, adjust to the field and expand their horizons on career choice. In other words, volunteering experience in their university period allows them to seek their career and role in their local community, promote communal spirit and improve their specialty through practical application of learning (Kim et al., 2007).
The volunteer activity of university student in South Korea started in the early 1990s. Since then, there was a rapid increase in the introduction of the volunteering learning system in university curriculum. There are three significant features of university student volunteers. First, young intellectuals can be a part of the local community and find themselves what their role is. Second, they can learn more not by theory alone but by experience. Third, students can communicate with local residents and find what society requires and desires for them.
This volunteer service can be categorized by its various fields and types. According to the types of volunteer service set by the Ministry of Education, youth volunteer activity includes volunteer assistance (giving a hand), consolatory visits, guidance counseling, campaign, charity slogan, preserving environmental facility and developing local community (Refer to table 1).
This table shows that volunteer service activities associated with maritime and fisheries can be applied to various categories such as giving a hand in the maritime fisheries community, maritime fisheries campaign, charity relief work on maritime fisheries disasters, preservation activity of maritime fisheries environment and developing local maritime fisheries community. That is, volunteer service in the maritime fisheries field includes all realms of volunteer service, which is a field met with much recognition as a factor of potential resource that could invigorate students’ volunteer service.
Another type of voluntary service which is categorized by Hong and Nam (2005) indicates that youth voluntary service can be divided in terms of its purpose, content, location, and relationship with the recipient. In detail, the purpose of volunteering is social education, welfare, environmental protection and medical treatment. Moreover, they provide two other sub-sections: facilities, and relationship with volunteers. Hospitals, libraries, and public institutions are the facilities, and direct and indirect volunteering are the sub-categories of relationship with volunteers (Refer to Table 2).
These sub-categories also can be applied to the field of maritime and fisheries. Youth associate activities and environmental protection are closely associated with the field of maritime and fisheries and a number of facilities related to maritime industries can be used to stimulate the activities of students. Thus, according to these categories, volunteer service in the field of maritime and fisheries has been implicated in playing a major role in volunteer service and should be dealt with great importance. To sum up, the importance and value of volunteer service activity in the field of maritime and fisheries shall be a field that will be greatly emphasized.
3.The actual condition of voluntary service in the field of maritime and fisheries
The expansion of the function of university students’ voluntary service and its review does not just distribute resources and charity but also exceed its dimension and improve the quality of university education; furthermore, it is understood as to allow university students to provide a place with self-development. Although functions of volunteer service is continuously expanding, systematic examination on the method to lead voluntary participation and academic approach on this matter is being overlooked. In other words, the research on university students’ voluntary service has not been conducted enough.
Precedent researches on the subject of voluntary service of university students are mainly on the topic of their attitude, awareness, real condition, proposal on voluntary volunteer activity, satisfaction on volunteer service, motivation for volunteer service and its management resolution, factors that influence the durability or degree of participation for volunteer service, effectiveness and influence of volunteer service, and volunteer service education.
However, these studies did not provide any detailed information on volunteer service of students. Especially, the field of maritime and fisheries was marginalized. The actual circumstance of student volunteers and the factors that affect secondary school students such as how often, how active, how long they participate are hard to evaluate. In addition, long term research in terms of national policy has not been conducted. Hence, this research conducted a survey to currently enrolled students to analyze the status and actual condition of volunteer service in the field of maritime and fisheries. The survey was conducted to 317 students in five different universities located in Busan, Mokpo and Kunsan on the topic of their experience in participating a volunteer service associated with the field of maritime and fisheries.1)
According to this survey, only 48 respondents out of total 317 have experienced in participating in a volunteer service associated to the field of maritime and fisheries. This means that only 15% of students who are the member of maritime schools had experienced in the volunteer service associated to the field of maritime and fisheries. Table 3
In detailed investigation of students who have participated at least more than one time in volunteer service associated to the field of maritime and fisheries, they participated in the activities such as prevention of oil pollution, assistance of fishing village, coast purification activities (Refer to Table 4).
And the reasons of their participation in volunteer service were to complete their required voluntary hours or credit hours which is mandatory to be fulfilled, or he/she was interested in the field of maritime and fisheries. Some of them also did voluntary service by following other people’s suggestion and recommendation (Refer to Table 5).
Also, this survey evaluates the students’ satisfaction in a way which they score the number from one to five. According to the result, the reply ‘somewhat satisfactory’ was the highest at 45 %. Next was ‘satisfied in average’(26 %), ‘very satisfied’(23 %), and ‘somewhat unsatisfied’(6 %). Interestingly, none of the respondents replied with ‘very unsatisfied’. From these results, it can be referred that most students who participated in volunteer service had high satisfactory standards though a few of respondents had participated in volunteer service (Refer to Table 6).
In a more specific question, which investigated detailed reason of students’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction, they mentioned the reason of satisfaction as follows: contribution on protecting environment, self-worthiness and accomplishment, interaction with others, special experience and communion with nature. On the other hand, students expressed their dissatisfaction on the lack of system, efficiency, diversity, resources, publicization, reward of the volunteer service and the limitations of self-capability (Refer to Table 7).
4.Implications on the policy of the volunteer service
In this research, we have investigated the actual condition and status of volunteer service, and analyzed the result of a survey conducted to university students associated with the maritime and fisheries to invigorate volunteer service. We will present some implications in this chapter to encourage university students to participate and contribute voluntary service in this field.
First, there is a need to broaden the boundaries of volunteer service and expand the opportunities of participation for the members of the volunteer service. According to the survey conducted in this research, only a small percentage (15 %) of students had experiences of participation in a volunteer service associated with the maritime and fisheries field. Despite the fact that four out of the five universities were specialized universities in the maritime and fisheries field, the participation rate was low. From this fact, we can presume that other universities or age groups would still have a much lower participation rate. Thus, there needs a nationwide interest to inspire the participation in the field of maritime and fisheries, and this will benefit us on educational effectiveness and management of volunteering.
Second, there needs a systematic management system for volunteer service. Through this research we could find that the biggest complaint on volunteer service associated with this field was the lack of systematic management and operation. It was the same reason that volunteer services in the maritime and fisheries field were not invigorated. Hence, the government needs to establish a department which manages and supports voluntary work systematically in a national level to protect environment and achieve sustainable development.
Third, various types of volunteer activities are demanded. According to the result of the survey, university students stated that they not only have had insignificant experiences during their participation in the volunteer service, but also expressed it as monotonous. In effect, the character of volunteer service associated with the maritime and fisheries is repetitious. In other words, the main activity area of the volunteers comes out to be oil spill prevention operations, fishing village volunteer assistance activity. This is very unfortunate because volunteer service in the maritime fisheries has variety of potential volunteer fields compared to other fields, but it could not fully demonstrate or utilize its unique characteristics and advantages. Furthermore, the result of other studies which show the conformity of volunteer service also can be understood in the same vein. Accordingly, the diversify of contents and methods in volunteer service need to be sought in a multilateral approach.
Fourth, improvement on professionalism is required. As mentioned earlier, students can find their future career and aptitude through volunteer services. One of the complaints given by the students was the lack of self-compatibility and this implies that professional knowledge and experience can be improved by these volunteer activities. Various programmes such as internship and job training will encourage the participation rate of students as well as their professional abilities. In other words, volunteer service needs to expand and reproduce its productivity through student activities in searching their career, aptitude, and their experience of apprenticeship.
Last, there is a need to publicize and advertise volunteer service more actively. Students were unsatisfied with the lack of advertisement on volunteer service. This discontentment implies that if volunteer service was not publicized enough students cannot participate volunteer activities even though there are potential volunteers. Thus, it is important to publicize the importance of volunteering as well as to expand the quality and quantity of volunteer service. Systematic and effective advertisement and strategies will be needed for this purpose.
5.Conclusion
In order to invigorate volunteer service in the maritime and fisheries field, it is imperative to comprehend the detailed status of volunteer activity in its precedence. On this ground, our research had conducted a survey to 317 students who are enrolled and currently affiliated in five universities (four-year university) on the topics: whether they have experienced in volunteer service associated with the maritime and fisheries field, how much they satisfied, and which volunteer activity the participants had contributed to. We analyzed these results in terms of efficiency.
According to the result, only a small number of students have experienced in volunteering. Furthermore, their volunteer experiences were focused simply on certain areas such as oil prevention operation, fishing vessel volunteer service and coast purification operation. Their main motivation was also limited to some reasons: contribute in the environment protection movement, mandatory volunteer & credit hours and their interest in the maritime fisheries field. Regarding satisfaction, more than half of the students who had participated in the volunteer service satisfied with their service. They satisfied with the following facts: they had contributed to protecting the environment, they could feel self-worthiness and accomplishment and they could make social interactions. In the same time, however, they dissatisfied with the lack of system, efficiency, variety of activity, resources and publicity, reward for their volunteer service and to their limitations of self-capability.
The result indicates that, despite of its low participation rate, the participation will contribute to form students’ wholesome values, and act as a medium of developing psychological ideals and ego-identity. That is, by contributing and devoting to the protection, development and recovery of environment, university students are able to contribute to local and national beneficiaries as well as develop their capabilities.
Therefore, it is important to establish a social support system for voluntary service which gives positive effects both in public and private sphere. Also, it is essential to find a solution which mitigate the impediments of voluntary service. In this regard, this research suggests the ideas that will improve both quality and quantity of volunteer service in the way which we discussed such as systemization, specialization and diversification. In addition to such efforts, one other solution which can vitalize volunteer service is to arouse scholarly interest and stress the necessity on developing a systematic research on this subject. Along with reinforcing in both quantitative and qualitative development of volunteer service, this will help students perform their development of task competence. Moreover, empirical and objective research will provide local community and individual with propulsion and resources. Consequently, scientific and objective information in the maritime and fisheries field will be able to give substantive assistance in deciding the direction and execution of the governmental policy.
To sum up, it is vital to enforce the development of volunteer service through continuous and systematic research. Research on the establishment of database, investigation on desires of volunteers, development of various volunteer services, research on the execution, evaluation, supplementation, development of each volunteer’s individual career, research on the subject of long and short term evaluation of the ripple effect, research on effective training of human resources and its management will be the examples. Through these researches, it will be able to support the development and execution of governmental policy more systematically.