Positions Peace Corps Could Not Fill as of 9.30.13

Peace Corps applications were at an historic low for 2013. A campaign to increase applications for 2014 was successfully. It is not known how this will translate into serving Volunteers. It is possible, however, to look at the consequences of the lack of an adequate number of applications for 2013.

The Peace Corps Performance and Accountability Report Fiscal Year 2013 reported “The number of applications has produced challenge in meeting the demand for skilled Volunteers at the quantity requested by posts.” Peace Corps does not include comprehensive demographic statistics in its annual reports. To obtain this information, it was necessary to make a FOIA request. The request was made on July 14, 2014 and this information was not received until October 22rd. It is not known if some or all of these positions were filled in 2014. Absent current data, it is difficult to know exactly what is happening with Peace Corps.

Here is the description and the number of skilled requests that went unfilled.

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Forestry — 3

Volunteers help communities conserve natural resources by working on projects such as soil conservation, watershed management and flood control; other projects include production of sustainable fuels, improvement of agro-forestry practices such as fruit production, building live fences and alley cropping and preservation of biodiversity,sometimes near national parks or other reserves.

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Protected Areas Management — 1

Volunteers provide technical assistance and training in natural resource conservation, generally in close affiliation with national parks or other reserves. Their activities include technical training of park managers, working with park staff on wildlife surveys, conducting community-based conservation such as sustainable use of forest or marine resources and promoting income-generating activities for communities living near protected areas.

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Environmental Awareness/Education — 7

Volunteers assist communities where environmental issues are in conflict with basic needs for farming and income generation. Their activities include teaching in elementary and secondary schools, providing environmental education to youth groups and individuals outside school settings, organizational development of environmental groups (often in newly emerging democracies), promoting sustainable use of forest or marine resources by communities, development of income-generating activities for communities living near protected areas and management of sanitation in urban areas.

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Applied Agricultural Science — 4

Volunteers encourage sustainable-crop production through promotion or organic-farming techniques and better farm management. Among their activities are conducting workshops on integrated pest management, introducing composting, green manures, and other soil improvement techniques, testing new varieties of seeds and demonstrating post-harvest management methods, and teaching agriculture and extension methodologies in formal training institutions.

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Farm Management/Agribusiness —3

Volunteers work with small-scale farmers, farmers’ cooperatives, agribusinesses, and non-governmental organizations. They teach basic business practices such as marketing, credit price determination, and general business planning, work on crop and livestock production and preservation, assist in organizing networks of local farmers, identify market structures and channels and perform production cost and price analysis.

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Agriculture and Forestry Extension — 20

Volunteers’ projects include establishing and maintaining soil and water conservation structures and practices, fruit tree production, live fences, and other agriculture-related forestry practices, fish cultivation, raising trees in small nurseries, apiculture and honey production, livestock health, meat and wool production, range management, vegetable gardening and nutrition education.

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Water and Sanitation Extension — 2

Volunteers serve in a broad range of projects including organizing and mobilizing communities to provide health and huygiene education, buliding latrines imroving potable water storage and doing community outreach to heighten health, water and sanitation and environmental awareness. May participate in tapping springs, overseeing well construction or building latrines.

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Business Advising — 30

Volunteers work in a variety of settings, assisting both private and public businesses, local and regional governments, nonprofit organizations, women’s and youth groups and educational institutions. They train and advise entrepreneurs and managers in business planning, marketing, financial management and product design; they also advise agricultural cooperatives, agribusinesses, and farmers, develop and write project funding proposals and work with community and business support groups. Other projects Volunteers work in include assisting with credit programs, facilitating business training workshops, and teaching business courses, English, and Junior Achievement programs.

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Information and Communication Technology — 1

Volunteers provide technical training and support to school systems, health ministries, municipal government offices, and non-governmental organizations. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) facilitate the creation, storage, management and dissemination of information by electronic means. This definition includes radio, video, telephony, fax, computer and the Internet. The broadening of this AA from principally Computer Science and Information Technology is to facilitate the recruitment and placement of Volunteers with a range of media experiences, including web, radio and video, and to distinguish between those with hard skills (e.g., database development) and those with greater experience in the use of media for entertainment/education messaging. With the rapid pace of technological deployment in communications and content services, many possible Candidates will already possess significant ICT literacy through several years of self-taught, informal and/or formal instruction in these areas.

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Business Development — 5

Volunteers work in a wide variety of projects in secondary schools, technical institutes, universities, non-governmental organizations and business centers. They consult with businesses and conduct seminars on starting a business, strategic planning, marketing, merchandising, organizational development, and tourism development. They also advise Junior Achievement organizations, teach basic business subjects and English, develop business education curricula, design training materials, work with women and minority groups to strengthen their participation in the economic system, and assist local and regional governments in planning and implementing economic development strategies.

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NGO Development — 15

Volunteers work with local, national, or international NGOs that deal with youth, social services, small business development or the environment. Typical projects include increasing an NGO’s organizational capacity and sustainability, creating strategic and funding plans, raising public awareness of an NGO’s mission, conducting community outreach, recruiting, training, and motivating NGO Volunteers, developing mission statements, by-laws and other documentation, working with board of directors, mentoring and skill building of staff and increasing the quality and effectiveness of an NGO’s services.

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Health Degree — 10

Volunteers teach public health in classrooms and model methodologies and subjects for primary and secondary school teachers. Projects include undertaking “knowledge, attitude, and practice” surveys in communities, assisting clinics or government planning offices in identifying health education needs, devising educational programs to address local health conditions, assisting in marketing of messages aimed at improving local health practices, carrying out epidemiological studies and acting as backup professionals for other health Volunteers. Volunteers also work in local health clinics to develop health education and outreach programs.

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Health Extension — 38

Volunteers raise awareness in communities about the need for health education. They play the role of catalyst on a wide range of activities, limited only by the creativity of the community and the Volunteer. Activities include identifying local leaders to teach families about maternal and child health, basic nutrition or sanitation, setting up training on nutrition, sanitation or oral re-hydration therapy, organizing groups to raise money for needed health care materials, and training of trainers for peer education about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

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Community Services — 32

Volunteers coordinate with other Peace Corps projects by conducting community outreach and needs assessments. They act as catalysts for change and are continually engaged in defining their role in response to their host community. Community development projects focus on education, youth development, health (especially HIV/AIDS), the environment or business, or a combination of these projects. Volunteers often work in youth development projects, working with after-school programs or out-of-school youth to develop activities, support youth in income-generating efforts and plan and facilitate non-formal education programs.

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Youth Development —13

Volunteers work with at-risk youth between ages 10-25 years helping communities to develop programs to assist these young people. Projects include vocational training, working with street kids, self-esteem and leadership-development activities, income-generation, health education, HIV/AIDS education and awareness, life-skills development, community organizing, organizational development, training of youth development workers and stay-in-school programs.

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Primary Teacher Training — 29

Volunteers provide formal and informal training and support to elementary school teachers and occasionally provide classroom instruction. They work with one or several schools, or teacher training colleges, to model participatory methodologies, conduct workshops and provide on-going teacher to local teachers. Some primary education projects focus specifically on health, HIV/AIDS, the environment, childhood development, ESL, remedial education, science or language arts.

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Secondary Education – TEFL/English Teaching — 114

Volunteers teach conversational English, TEFL, or content-based English in middle and high schools. In addition to classroom teaching, Volunteers share resources, develop teaching materials with local teachers and become involved in community- and school-based projects.

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University English Teaching — 6

Volunteers work with university-level students who need enhanced English language skills to make use of academic and technical resources published in English in their study of languages, literature, business, medicine, engineering or other fields. Volunteers teach English grammar, conversation, phonetics, American literature and culture, creative writing and linguistics, establish English language clubs and resource centers, share ideas and develop materials with fellow teachers and integrate communicative teaching techniques into the classroom.

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Secondary Education – Math — 13

Volunteers in math teach basic concepts, including remedial math, geometry, algebra, statistics, probability and calculus. They also work in after-school programs, youth clubs and library development.

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Secondary Education – Science —10

Volunteers in science teach general science, biology, chemistry and physics. In addition to classroom teaching, science teaching Volunteers integrate health education and environmental education in their classrooms and engage in other school and community activities.

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Special Education —2

Volunteers work with education offices, schools, and local teachers, focusing on methodology, individualized instruction, classroom management and resource development for teachers of students with special needs. Volunteers also work with parents and the community to develop projects to raise public awareness and understanding of people with disabilities.

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Secondary Education – English Teacher Training — 15

Volunteers work with new and experienced English teachers training student teachers at teachers colleges or providing in-service training to experienced teachers in current methodologies, subject content and resource development, thus creating sustainable improvements in teaching that will affect generations of future students. Projects include increasing local teachers’ English language competency and conversational skills and organizing teacher associations or training seminars.

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Unique Skills —11

Unique Skills is used for requests that fall outside of the established assignment areas. Unique skill requests vary dramatically in the types of skills required and can include requests for highly skilled Volunteers such as curriculum development specialists, medical doctors, veterinarians, theater design specialists, and evaluation and assessment specialists.