Telford & Wrekin CVS InformationSite where we share the latest news and informationFiled under: trainingFREE Training - Thinking of a Career in the Voluntary Sector?Many people do not realise that the Voluntary Sector is a BIG employer. As we are coming across many who are looking for a career change, we thought it would be a good idea to run a short workshop titled: Bev Harris, our Volunteer Centre Manager, is an experienced trainer with extensive knowledge about the sector, volunteering and the potential for paid employment. It's not just the cost of trainingOne of my previous BLOG posts mentioned more economical ways of training staff. One of the suggestions was using a local trainer. But what if you can not find the training you need locally? During the past years, when times were better, we had excellent training literally "thrown" at us. Training organisations were prepared to travel to locations which were convenient to us, which was exactly what we (the customer) wanted. Things have definitely changed now. The general cost cutting is affecting everyone and I have noticed that London based trainers are only delivering in London. That makes sense, it takes up less time and they don't have any travel expense. NO, it doesn't make sense because the 15 to 20 people travelling to London are picking up the tab. Who benefits? Not the Sector, not the training provider: the rail company. That definitely does NOT make sense. The reason for my frustration is a recent example. A member of staff needs follow-up training to maintain accreditation for what she does. Previously this was provided at a reasonable distance from Telford. Now it is in London. The price of the training is £87. This is a good rate and worth it. Cost of travel to London: £169 ! It would be cheaper to fly! Why is it so expensive? Answer: because the course starts at 9.30 and finishes at 4.30 and those are peak travel times. This is a real problem and a difficult nut to crack. The potential light at the end of the tunnel is Virgin Trains. They have a 20% reduction scheme for charities. You do need to meet certain criteria and I am not sure whether the "only off peak" rule applies. I have registered and it takes up to 15 days to get approval. I will keep you posted!
Career in the Voluntary SectorAre you thinking about a career in the Voluntary Sector? Or you may just be thinking about a career change. If you are wondering whether this sector would suit you, the FREE 3 hour workshop the Volunteer Centre is organising in Telford may help. It is taking place on Tuesday morning 14th June. You do need to book. For more information: Training How To... Part 2With money being tighter, one of the first budget cut casualties is staff training and development. We can not afford to attend the training we would like at the moment and I am sure we are not alone. The KnowHow wiki site has some suggestions on how to: Train and develop people without it costing a fortune. These suggestions can help to make the (smaller) training budget go further so we can continue with our professional development.
Charity Fair. Is it worth it?I don't intend to use this Blog to encourage people to spend money. My main aim is to inform, save time and save money. I will make this exception as I can speak from experience. On the 27th and 28th June, the Directory of Social Change holds their annual Charity Fair. It's in London, which is a pain if you don't work near London like us. We decided to attend last year and managed to stay for both days. It was very very good and worth every penny. What they offer is mostly one hour workshops and some 2 hour "master classes". The range of categories covered was vast like Fundraising, Financial Management, People Management, Managing Volunteers, Governance, Legal etc. To see which workshops are offered in each category it is best to have a look yourself on www.charityfair.org.uk . Last year we came back with lots of ideas and a wealth of information. I think the beauty of it was that it was relevant. So money well spent. We are going again this year and looking forward to it. We will share what we learn on this site, but if you have money in the budget for training, it is worth considering attending. I doubt if we will have the funds to go next year, so we are going to make the most of it in June.
Improve your skills using Microsoft packages?Yes you can! And it's not as difficult or time consuming as you might think. I often get asked if there is anywhere, where you can learn how to use MS Word, Excel, and all the others... better. Well there is, and you can access it from the comfort of your keyboard. It is a site which is easy to navigate and will give you 5 minute tutorials using video clips. It is like having someone next to you explaining everything. All you need is a computer with sound. You don't need to trawl through endless modules, you can easily find the subject you want to learn about, and off you go. You could, of course, start at the beginning which I did with excel. I am self taught and I discovered that if I set up my spreadsheets at the start, it makes life a lot easier. If you do give it a try, let me know what you think. |
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