About GoldStar 
Tailoring training to individual needs
It is essential to tailor training to specific needs of individual volunteers. For example, training involving those whose first language is not English may need to differ from other volunteers. Discussion with individuals will help to identify the needs of individuals in both course content and timescale. In the context induction training is important and can be a key component for volunteers.
Below are a few examples of how other organisations have accoplished this: |
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Richmond CVS has tailored their training and induction to meet the needs of women from a variety of backgrounds |
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Richmond CVS
A key element is the delivery of high quality training and induction.
WinG provides an initial taster training day followed by a 10 week training programme for all volunteers, covering all aspects of decision-making roles in the community and ICT training. This training is delivered by two highly qualified project staff.
Although there is a lot of training material already developed in relation to supporting volunteers and management issues, the project identified a lack of developed training material specifically aimed at diverse groups of women to get them into decision-making, so project staff decided to write this from scratch.
The Open College Network (OCN) has accredited the WinG training programme units “Power & Diversity” and “Participation in Local Governance” at Levels 2 and 3, offering external confirmation of the quality of the training provided as well as formal recognition of the volunteers’ achievements.
35% of volunteers have gained the accredited qualification through participating in the WinG training. The course has been externally assessed by OCN London, who highlighted the strengths of the project and praised its inclusive delivery and consistently high standards. One of the innovations of the Project is the creation of specialist IT training. This recognises that the ability to use computers – particularly email and Internet - is an essential skill for those seeking a governance role.
The project stresses the importance of flexibility in terms of delivery and support tailored to individuals needs.
In order to cater for women with school age children the project made a commitment to teach between 10-2.30 so participants got an hour either side to drop off and collect their children. The project also pays for childcare for pre-school children, for carers, and for transport and in special circumstances for taxis. One of the key challenges for the project has been finding affordable and accessible venues (The project has a limited budget).
Although there are dropouts from the programme, this is identified as mainly an issue at the “front end” of the programme, after which women usually stay the course. However, there have been some concerns with participants not completing project work. To address this a wide range of support has been developed.
The project tries to encourage volunteers by doing things like sample assignments so they can see the sort of thing they might want to aim for, having individual learning plans fairly near the beginning of the course so the trainer gets to know the individual learners and what their sticking points might be, where they might need support and what might make them more comfortable. Volunteers have emails and telephone numbers of key staff and even the trainers’ mobile numbers. At the end of the course a “coursework surgery” is held in order to resolve any issues. If particular volunteers haven’t started coursework the trainer tries to work out a plan of action. Volunteers are encouraged to form coursework networks, to communicate and support each other. This might involve a more social element, as volunteers often go to each other’s houses and have a coffee or a glass of wine and talk.
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