Ability Development Measured by the Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons and Effectiveness of Forest Volunteer Activities: Case Study of Forest Volunteer Activities of University Students in Niimi City, Okayama Prefecture

摘要

The expanded planting of artificial forests has been facilitated in forests in Japan in response to the requests from Japanese people, who were in need of wood materials during the period of the economic growth, and for public use of the forests. However, even though Japan currently has a larger volume of artificial forests than ever before, the forests are not utilized due to a contradictory heavy dependence on imported wood.In order to pass the forests and their public functions down to the following generations and to realize "sustainable development," there is a need for human resources which can look for the root of problems with multidimensional perspectives and can innovate regional societies.The purpose of the study is to focus on the competency growth of students participating in forest volunteer activities as a possible means for such human resource development and to consider the educational effectiveness, by measuring their development.For that purpose, we measured the growth of students' competencies through volunteer forest activities, by the Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons (FCWP), based on the data of 20 students who participated in forest volunteer activities in NiimiCity, Okayama Prefecture. The growth rate of students' competencies through forest volunteer activities was characteristically seen in their Ability to control stress, Creativity, Ability to influence, and Ability to grasp situations, which was judged byself-evaluation sheets before and after a 2-week activity.Principal components are analyzed to verify the factors for the above results and the factors of achievement and activity contents for the forest volunteer has positively influenced competency growth.