New apprenticeships frameworks

Apprenticeships frameworks for charities and social enterprises

New descriptions (known as frameworks) of what an apprentice should learn and know while they are following an apprenticeship in a charity or social enterprise will be available shortly. There are over 190 different apprenticeship frameworks available now, many of which are suitable for voluntary sector organisations. The frameworks offered by Fair Train training providers are listed in the Search for training section.

However, there haven’t been any frameworks that cover the jobs that are specifically found in charities, social enterprises, voluntary and community organisations. Skills - Third Sector, the charity responsible for making sure that voluntary sector organisation have people with the right skills to make a difference, are writing frameworks that cover some of the roles found in charities and social enterprises.

Working with a steering group of voluntary sector employers and training providers, they are developing frameworks to cover:

fundraising
campaigning
managing volunteers
project/development work

Consulting with charities and social enterprises

Skills - Third Sector ran a public consultation into apprenticeship frameworks in the voluntary sector between February and May 2010 inviting people to tell them what skills and knowledge an apprentice should learn and be able to do. The consultation consisted of an online survey and four consultation panels.

Two panels involved professionals from the voluntary sector in London and Nottingham in conjunction with Enable (the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Voluntary and Community Sector Learning and Skills Consortium).

Bradford CVS facilitated a panel of volunteers in conjunction with Youthtrain, because volunteers are potentially a key group of apprentices.
The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) facilitated a panel of young people aged 16 to 25 from their Enthusiastic National Voice of Youth forum (ENVOY).

The full report from the consultation can be downloaded from here.

To be kept up to date with future developments about voluntary sector apprenticeships visit the Skills - Third Sector website and sign up to email alerts by emailing the apprenticeships team.