Big skills shortages identified in new survey

Organisations urged to use skilled volunteers to help meet their major challenges

A survey of 570 voluntary organisations throughout the UK has highlighted the most significant challenges they are facing and the skills they need to meet them. The research, carried out by Reach Volunteering, identifies three priority areas in which the sector is short on skills: income generation, strategic decision-making and trustee boards. Now, charities are being challenged to think more creatively about using skilled volunteers to plug a potentially damaging skills gap. And Reach is developing initiatives to support them.

In the current tough economic climate, it is perhaps not surprising that funding the future is rated as far and away the most critical issue facing the sector.

Among the hundreds of organisations that responded to Reach’s survey, more than three-quarters said they regarded funding as critical, with close to 20% more identifying it as a priority. It is also the area where the sector’s biggest skills gap is focussed, with more than three out of five organisations reporting that they need additional skills to meet the challenge of income generation.

Sarah King, Reach’s Chief Executive, comments:

‘There’s a huge demand for skilled volunteers who can work on income generation among the organisations we support. Our survey provides firm evidence of the breadth and seriousness of this skills gap.
 
‘We are going to encourage more volunteers to consider applying their highly transferable business skills to a range of disciplines that can help the voluntary sector address its funding challenges.
 
‘At the same time, we’ll be working with charities to help them broaden their thinking beyond traditional notions of fundraising. We'll also help them to better define interesting and challenging income generation roles which will appeal to skilled volunteers.’    

Trustee boards are another area where voluntary organisations are facing a significant skills gap. More than half of the organisations in Reach’s survey said they needed to recruit more skilled trustees to meet the challenges they face.

A third key area of skills shortage highlighted by the survey concerns strategic decision-making and implementation: 86% of organisations identified change management as a major priority and 68% reported that they were facing difficult decisions about where to direct resources. Around one in three said they needed additional skills to equip them to deal effectively with these challenges.

Armed with more detailed information about the sector’s skill requirements, Reach is now developing initiatives to target them. New efforts will go into identifying and recruiting volunteers with skills in finance, business and strategic planning, research and change management. Efforts will also be made to respond to the need for volunteers who can help organisations move from decisions and ideas to implementation; ‘doers’ who can put plans into action.

Reach has already established a specialism in recruiting skilled trustees. It now plans to further develop its TrusteeWorks service to increase the access that charities have to its specialist support.

‘We’ve got the skilled help that charities need and we want them to come and get it!’, says Sarah. ‘Thousands of people with valuable career skills are prepared to volunteer their time and expertise. Sadly,  too often charities are’t taking up the offer because they don’t recognise how relevant that experience is or that it’s available. I want to challenge and support charities to think more broadly about the skills they need and the people that have them.’

However, although the skills gap is large, it can be bridged extremely cost-effectively. ‘We estimate that the value of the skills needed in the three priority areas is £25m,’ adds Sarah. ‘But, for just £500 donated to us, we can provide a volunteer who will be worth £14,000 a year for their charity.'

If you’re a company, professional body or other ‘skills champion’ who can help Reach bridge  priority skills gaps with expertise and funding  please contact caroline.beaumont@reachskills.org.uk

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