Core Skills in Volunteer Management training

We are working in partnership with Volunteer Edinburgh to offer training to volunteer involving organisations across the Western Isles this September.

The Volunteer Centre will cover the cost of participating Western Isles organisations. If you would like to book a place, please email suzanne@volunteercentrewi.org with the following details:

• name;
• organisation/ group;
• email address;
• and contact phone number

Please note, if you book directly through the Volunteer Edinburgh website, you will charged full price. To take advantage of free spaces, please book through the Volunteer Centre Western Isles.

Core Skills in Volunteer Management (fully online)

Our popular Core Skills in Volunteer Management course is now fully accessible to you and we are pleased to say that we are now able to offer it online. Delivered over four weeks using a mixture of self-study, online forum-based discussions and Zoom, our online CSVM gives you a fantastic professional development opportunity in a totally flexible way.

Core Skills in Volunteer Management (CSVM) is a suite of training which covers all the essentials of volunteer management. Suitable for both someone new to volunteer management as well as those who have been in the business for a while, these enjoyable and interactive courses will help you develop your professional volunteer management skills and share experience with other managers. The courses have been developed by practitioners for practitioners.

• Involvement (week 1) starting Monday 13 September   Using volunteers within your organisation not only means you can achieve more but involving volunteers brings a unique added value to any organisation. Good volunteer involvement pays huge dividends but it needs a solid foundation to make it work well.
• Recruitment (week 2) starting Monday 20 September   Are you struggling to recruit enough volunteers or the right volunteers for the roles that you need? Effective recruitment is more than just asking people to help and it is very different from recruiting for paid staff.

Topics that will be covered include:

• Benefits of working with volunteers;
• Motivations, expectations, needs;
• Formal structures: volunteer policy, volunteer agreements, role descriptions;
• Recruitment strategy and methods; and
• Selection.

Flexible Learning

Each week will require approximately 3.5 hours of study time, most of which can be done flexibly to suit you, but you are required to attend a weekly Zoom session. You can participate in the course at any time between Monday and Friday.

What does the course cover?

The course consists of several activities including self-study (reading) and forum discussions all of which can be done at your own pace on the Volunteer Edinburgh Academy. There is also a weekly 1.5 hour, facilitated Zoom session each Friday to enable you to connect with other learners, reflect on your practice and learning, and share discussions. You will be able to select a time slot for the Zoom session that suits you best (9:30, 11:30 or 14:00); we will have a maximum of six participants in each slot.

The estimated time required for each week:

Reading and interactive presentations: 0.5h (Volunteer Edinburgh Academy)

Forum discussion participation and activities: 1.5h (Volunteer Edinburgh Academy)

Discussion: 1.5h (Zoom)

What do participants say?

100% said that the training was useful or very useful