Have you been thinking about volunteering or working in the voluntary sector and want to find out more about it? Do you already work or volunteer and are seeking to build on your existing knowledge or skills? Do you have a general interest in voluntary organisations? Are you looking to develop your study skills for further learning? If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions this course is for you.This course is introduced by Martha Lane Fox, the Chancellor of The Open University and a significant figure in the voluntary sector.This free online course, Working in the voluntary sector, will introduce you to some of the main activities carried out by volunteers and staff, will give you some background on how different organisations work and will provide you with knowledge and skills you can apply to your own work or volunteering, as well as to your every day life. Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation – which also displays your Open University badge. This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation. The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction and guidance
- Introduction and guidance
- What is a badged course?
- How to get a badge
- Acknowledgements
- Week1Week 1: Getting started – working in a voluntary organisation
- Introduction
- 1 Jobs, tasks and roles
- 1.1 What’s in a role?
- 1.2 Formal and informal roles
- 2 Influences on role
- 2.1 Influences on task and role
- 2.2 Organisation and role
- 2.3 Person and role
- 2.4 Reviewing expectations
- 3 Roles and functions of voluntary organisations
- 3.1 Purpose of a voluntary organisation
- 4 Influences on voluntary organisations
- 5 This week’s quiz
- 6 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week2Week 2: Working with volunteers
- Introduction
- 1 Why do voluntary organisations need volunteers?
- 2 Recruiting volunteers
- 2.1 Methods of recruiting volunteers
- 2.2 Volunteer role descriptions
- 2.3 Meeting/interviewing volunteers
- 3 Induction and training
- 4 Retaining and motivating volunteers
- 4.1 Skills and tasks
- 4.2 Motivation
- 4.3 The psychological contract
- 5 This week’s quiz
- 6 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week3Week 3: Introducing marketing and communications
- Introduction
- 1 What is marketing?
- 2 Understanding communication
- 2.1 The communication process
- 3 What do you want to say?
- 4 Keeping your audience in mind
- 5 Getting your audience’s attention and interest
- 6 Persuading people to take action
- 6.1 Style and image
- 7 This week’s quiz
- 8 Summary
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Week4Week 4: Working with financial information
- Introduction
- 1 Finance, rules and regulations
- 1.1 The role of trustees in financial management
- 1.2 Financial statements
- 2 Sources of income
- 3 What is a budget?
- 3.1 What are budgets used for?
- 3.2 Different types of budget
- 4 Interpreting budgets
- 4.1 Expenditure and costs
- 5 Balancing the budget
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week5Week 5: Introducing fundraising
- Introduction
- 1 What is fundraising?
- 2 Asking individuals for money
- 2.1 How to ask donors for money
- 2.2 Feeling confident to ask
- 2.3 Developing your ability to ask
- The process approach
- 2.4 The contribution multiplier
- 3 Asking other organisations for money
- 3.1 The role of planning in obtaining resources
- 4 Challenges of fundraising
- 5 Skills needed for fundraising
- 5.1 Learning from the fundraising process
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week6Week 6: Effective meetings
- Introduction
- 1 Meetings: good and bad
- 1.1 Why have meetings?
- 2 Types of meeting
- 3 Planning a meeting
- 4 Chairing meetings
- 5 Taking part
- 6 Recording and following up meetings
- 7 This week’s quiz
- 8 Summary
- Acknowledgements
- Week7Week 7: Working in teams and partnerships
- Introduction
- 1 What is a team?
- 1.1 What makes a team effective?
- 2 Team roles
- 3 Building a team
- 3.1 Stages of team development
- 3.2 Team conflict
- 4 Working in partnership
- 4.1 Why do organisations work in partnership?
- 4.2 Barriers to partnership working
- 5 This week’s quiz
- 6 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week8Week 8: Understanding stress and conflict
- Introduction
- 1 What is stress?
- 1.1 Causes of stress
- 1.2 Causes of stress in the voluntary sector
- 2 Coping with stress
- 3 What is conflict?
- 3.1 What does conflict look like?
- 3.2 Causes of conflict
- Multi-layered conflict
- 4 Coping with conflict
- 4.1 Active listening
- 4.2 Assertive communication
- 4.3 Negotiation
- 5 Understanding conflict constructively
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary
- Tell us what you think
- Where next?
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
