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.
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 course is designed to help participants in the voluntary and community sector to monitor and evaluate the work of their organisation effectively and ensure that their working practices are robust and fit for purpose. It can also be relevant to those staff in statutory agencies who work on community projects.
This half day course is designed for voluntary and community organisations and those involved in community development who need to write funding applications and want to ensure that their bids are clear, focussed and meet the funders’ criteria.
PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance Standard for Organisations) is a quality standard designed for the voluntary and community sector. Organisations can choose to use the criteria as a self-assessment tool or can go on to external accreditation and gain the Quality Mark at one of three levels, all of which are recognised and approved by the Charity Commission. This half day course provides an excellent introduction to this quality standard, which is now used by some statutory authorities as a pre-requisite for funding.
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 to help participants learn more about the new legal form for charities, the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), which was introduced in January 2013. The session will set the context and background to the introduction of the CIO, explore its potential benefits (and weaknesses) when set against the company limited by guarantee structure and introduce the two constitution models – the Foundation version (where only trustees are members) and the Association model (where the organisation’s membership is wider). By the end of the course participants should have a deeper knowledge of the subject so that they are able to make a more informed choice as to whether this legal entity might work for their organisation.