Pre-Service Benefits and Training

Benefits and pre-service training for Volunteers

Get benefits before service begins, including training like cultural, technical, and language trainings to prepare you for your service assignment.

Medical and dental reimbursement

The Peace Corps covers necessary and appropriate medical and dental expenses during your service.

To learn about medical reimbursement, see before you apply checklist and application steps.

Language training

Language proficiency in the local language(s) is critical to successfully implement activities in your assigned project, develop effective and appropriate intercultural relationships with community members, and mitigate risks to your personal safety and security.

A significant portion of your pre-service training will be dedicated to language learning, with a mix of classroom, field-based learning, and self-directed language learning.

During pre-service training, you will participate in language instruction in small groups several days a week and complete regular assignments using the local language with a host family or community members. You will also learn strategies for ongoing language learning to continue your language learning journey throughout service.

You must meet a minimum language proficiency benchmark for oral communication in order to swear-in as a Volunteer.

Technical training

Technical training builds on skills you have and emphasizes how to adapt and transfer those skills to host country partners and community members.

Training and learning opportunities are designed for you to develop the technical competencies required of your assigned project to implement project activities; monitor, learn, adapt, and report progress; and to engage in mutual learning and collaborate respectfully with others.

Health and wellness training

During pre-service training, Peace Corps medical officers prepare Volunteers to demonstrate responsibility for personal health and wellness in service.

The training focuses on preventive strategies, medical guidelines, and policies for reporting and response when urgent health needs present. Health topics covered include:

• Routine health problems
• Behavioral health and well-being
• Gastrointestinal illness
• Mosquito-borne illness
• Sexual health
• Nutrition
• Alcohol and substance abuse

Safety and security training

Maintaining personal safety and security during service is our priority and a shared responsibility of the Peace Corps and Volunteers.

During pre-service training, you will learn what you can do to reduce risks in your home, in your workplace, and while traveling in country.

You will learn to identify and mitigate safety risks, as well as about the support the Peace Corps provides in the event you become the victim of a crime.

Safety and security training consists of global core sessions on:

• Personal security and risk reduction
• Dealing with unwanted attention
• Sexual assault awareness
• Reporting and response
• Bystander intervention

Country-specific sessions on topics such as:

• Home safety
• Emergency action planning
• Transportation safety
• Gender and interpersonal relationships
• Incident reporting and response
• Peace Corps policies and legal context