2562 Courses in Birmingham

This half day or whole day course is designed for those who are new to either working in or with the voluntary and community sector, including staff, councillors and committee members working in statutory agencies. It will help you understand how the sector works, the various legal forms of organisations, issues of governance and sustainability so that you are able to work more effectively in partnership with the sector and understand its funding needs. The half day course covers the basic information; the longer course can include further subjects such as the use of volunteers and typical issues that face trustee boards and management committees.

This half day course is designed to help participants plan and promote events, whether for fundraising, social or educational purposes. It provides practical tips on a wide range of subject areas from choosing events to determining budgets and publicity methods. The course can be adapted to take in any type of events or can concentrate on particular areas such as organising fundraising events, conferences or cultural events.

This half day course provides participants with the knowledge and skills to write a simple but effective business plan for their organisation. It considers aspects of why business planning is important, what background research is needed, what subject areas to include and how to monitor progress against the business plan. For in-house courses the session could be extended to a whole day with participants spending the afternoon working on a first draft of a business plan.

This half day or whole day course is designed around a project planning workbook that will provide participants with questions and practical advice to ensure that a project is well thought-out and practical, with clear aims and objectives. It will also help to ensure that if you are applying for project funding that you have answers to all the likely questions you will be asked. The half day course will cover the basics and ensure that the most important areas of project planning are addressed. The course could be extended to a whole day, covering all the areas and offering time for participants to complete the majority of the work book. The course would be suitable for anyone who is planning a project or who needs to re-focus a project that is not working effectively.

This half day course is designed for new treasurers, general trustees and management committee members or staff who work in smaller organisations to understand the basics of how to manage the finances within a voluntary or community organisation. It covers all the essential issues ranging from drawing up a budget to ensuring that the organisation has sound financial procedures.

In some organisations appraisals are seen as an annual chore that has to be undertaken and neither the manager nor the staff gain any real benefit from it. This half day course is designed to help managers appraise their staff effectively so that both parties develop more insight, motivation and a better understanding of each other. It will help participants work with their staff to create work plans that are effective and realistic. This course can be run as a one-off session or as part of a series of sessions on staff management.

Often your recruitment and induction processes determine whether you retain your staff and volunteers. A poor induction often leads to a lack of productivity and motivation. This half day course is designed to help participants ensure that new staff receive a comprehensive and welcoming induction so that they can settle into their job or role quickly and with confidence. The course can be run as a one-off session or can be incorporated into a series of sessions on managing staff.

A half day course for those who find themselves taking and presenting minutes for different kinds of meetings. The session will provide practical tips on how to write minutes that are clear and more concise and how to save time during the minute-taking process. It will be a useful session for both novice and experienced minute takers.

This course, which can be run as a half day (3.5 hours) or a whole day course, is designed to help those who chair or participate in meetings to understand how to run effective meetings that are constructive, concise and actually achieve something! The course can be adapted to cover meetings in general or focus on specific types of meetings such as trustee, director or committee meetings, staff or project meetings.

This half day course is designed to help staff working in statutory agencies, and local representatives, understand the role of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), how the management of European funding for Social Inclusion is changing and requiring more partnership working, and the opportunities and issues that arise in working in partnership with the VCS.