Services - Workforce Development for the Third Sector in Suffolk

Since 2002 there have been numerous surveys carried out, and reports produced (including our own in September 2007 'Learning and Skills Needs Survey'), which have confirmed the need for a Workforce Development (WfD) strategy for the Third Sector.

What learning related issues do we need to overcome?

In March 2007 the ‘Suffolk Third Sector Learning Consortium Workforce Development Strategy’ was published, identifying the following issues:

• The need for organisations to produce learning plans / analyse learning needs
• Skills gaps, including Health and Safety, ICT, team working, customer care, supervisory skills, first aid, partnership working and management skills
• Lack of Management Skills
• Poor Appraisal and Supervision
• Lack of Job Security and Career Development, due to short term funding and lack of promotional opportunities
• Lack of Skilled Trustees
• Lack of time and cover
• No mechanisms for recording work and communicating good practice

Workforce Development - Strategic and Key Aims

The key aims of this strategy are:

Third Sector organisations

• Should have access to easy and affordable high quality relevant learning and development to enable them to fulfil the requirements of their mission effectively.

All paid staff, volunteers and trustees

• Should have access to easy and affordable high quality relevant learning and development, to enable them to fulfil the requirements of their role effectively, and to enable them to meet personal development ambitions.

Particular skill and support needs are relevant for key groups including:

Managers

• Volunteer Management, leadership, communication, supervision and business / strategic planning
• Access to appropriate mentoring support / networking opportunities to both reduce isolation and to increase best practice transfer for key roles.

Trustees

• Accountability, governance, legal issues, management / leadership, risk assessment / management
• New trustees should be clear on the role responsibilities and the organisation’s background and have support from an established trustee
• All trustees should have access to appropriate networking opportunities to increase best practice transfer for key roles.

Volunteers

• Organisational requirements e.g. Health and Safety, manual handling
• Service Users
• Confidence building / employability skills.

The Workforce Development Process

Sign up to Learning Champions - a project, fully funded by the LSC/ESF, open to organisations with up to 250 employees, provides training and access to online resources of training and funding information.

Sign up to the Skills Pledge - for which we provide a pro-forma

Identify your skills needs - A free assessment by a Skills Broker of the current skills your organisations employees, trustees and volunteers, and what it is likely to need in the future.
 

• the type of training that best suits your needs
• selecting the most appropriate training providers
• identifying how and when training will be delivered
• determining which qualifications the individuals concerned will benefit most.

Learning shortfalls - If the Skills Broker can not meet all your training needs, or there are shortfalls identified in the courses delivered through Train to Gain, the Suffolk Learning Consortium will:

• Collect and collate details of the shortfalls to assess whether there is the demand for the development and delivery of new courses.
• Highlight the demand for new courses to the LSC and Train to Gain contract holders, and seek new provision.

Finding funding - recommendations will be made for the best ways of funding your training. Train to Gain provides some funding itself. For example:

• Free training to help staff and volunteers gain their first full Level 2 qualification (the equivalent of five good GCSEs or above), Skills for Life programmes, higher level skills and a wide range of other training.
• Funded programmes, including for Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships, NVQ Level 3 and above, such as higher education.
• Part funding for Leadership and Management Training / Coaching for a Senior Person within the organisation
  (CLICK HERE to download the Train to Gain Leadership and Management offer for the Third Sector)
• Wage compensation for organisations with less than 50 employees

Ongoing review and support:
Having worked through the above, to identify and respond to your initial needs, we will provide support and signposting to ensure a continuous review of your learning needs.

Can we help your organisation?
If you would like to know more about this Workforce Development system please contact me (details on the Contact Us page) and I will be happy to answer your questions or come and visit you.