Frank Deaver Rotary Editorials

     Among Rotary’s “Four Avenues of Service,” probably the one least discussed and promoted is Vocational Service.  If so, it is perhaps because vocational is, to a large degree, inter-related with the other three – Club, Community, and International.

     Even RI President Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar said of Vocational Service that “it can be so hard to define.”  Nevertheless, he emphasized it as the monthly theme of Rotary International for October.

     Vocational Service can be better understood, appreciated, and credited to our club accomplishments if we consider it within three categories.

International Vocational Service

     It is no stretch of the imagination to include the following as truly being vocational service: Ambassadorial Scholarships, equipping young people to maximize their career potentials; Group Study Exchange, with vocational days that allow visitors an international comparison of their jobs; and PolioPlus, inoculations that rescue potential victims from a life of limited vocational options.

     A new generation of young Russian entrepreneurs has been offered vocational training in job skills ranging from Advertising to Wholesale Distribution. This is offered largely through three-week programs hosted by American Rotary Clubs.  The trainees return to a developing free-enterprise economy, creating vocational opportunities for colleagues and employees.

     In a town in Portugal, the unemployed and handicapped are offered tools, materials, and instruction in producing handcraft items; then assistance in marketing their wares.

     As Rotarians participate, directly or through financial donations, to these international programs, they are truly advancing the vocational opportunities of countless individuals.

Community Vocational Service

     In the name of Community Service, Rotary Clubs regularly do many things that legitimately can be classified also as vocational.  Locally sponsored Interact and Rotaract Clubs offer opportunities for job shadowing, practice interviews, programs on business ethics, and much more.

     Many Rotarians volunteer their expertise as speakers in schools, sharing experiences and observations of the business world, and counseling students on vocational choices. Rotary Clubs often sponsor career seminars and vocational training workshops.

     After natural disasters such as the tsunami in Southeast Asia and the hurricanes along the Gulf Coast of the United States, Rotarians have offered immediate aid to displaced victims of nature’s wrath.  Evacuees have been assisted in retraining for new jobs and in relocation to places of economic opportunity.  This is nothing less than vocational service.

Individual Vocational Service

     But aside from programs admittedly linked with Community and International activities, Vocational Service occurs almost invisibly in every Rotary Club, and in the daily activities of most Rotarians.

     The Object of Rotary calls for Rotarians to apply high ethical standards in their businesses and professions, and to consider their own occupations as opportunities to serve society.  Clearly, vocational service is more than just a corporate activity of a club.  It is the sum total of high ethical standards of Rotarians within their respective vocations.

     PRIP Glenn Estess noted that Rotarians, through their daily practice of business and professional ethics, have earned the trust and respect of people throughout the world.  “From the earliest days of Rotary,” he said, “Rotarians have been concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives.”

     Vocational Service, whether a club activity or the example set by individual Rotarians, plays a vital role in quality of life and ethical standards of a community.