The work of charities and community groups is vital to ensure that the most disadvantaged in our communities are not left alone. We do the toughest jobs with often little funding or support. However, we are here to help you! 

Our training offers you the chance to get expert advice from our training and development team on a range of topics that will help you to help even more people.

CVS Perth & Kinross are offering training in different ways in 2009. We shall still continue to offer courses of general interest to the voluntary sector, but also offer bespoke training to organisations with specific training needs.

Our 2009 Courses are as follows:

Thursday 23 April:              Basic Bookkeeping * (1.30pm to 4.30pm)
Thursday 21 May:               Employment Rights & Employers' Responsibilities (9.30am to 4.30pm)
Tuesday 9 June:                 Accounting for Charities and Companies Limited by Guarantee * (9.30am to 4.30pm)
Tuesday 29 September:     Employment Rights & Employers' Responsibilities (9.30am to 4.30pm)
Tuesday 27 October:          Use of Power Point in Presentations (9.30am to 4.30pm)

Courses marked * will be delivered by external trainers.

The half-day or short courses may also run in an evening or Saturday morning (and/or at an alternative venue) if there is sufficient demand. Bespoke training can take place at a time and venue chosen by the organisation.

2009 Training Course Costs

Half-day / Short Courses:      £30 per person (including refreshments)
Full-day Courses:                 £50 per person (including lunch and refreshments)

Bespoke Training Costs, at a venue arranged by the organisation, are:

Half-day / Short Courses:       £ 50 charged to the organisation
Full-day Courses:                 £100 charged to the organisation

To book your place on the above courses, contact Bob Gillespie on 01738 567076 or bob.gillespie@pkavs.org.uk for a booking form. Please note that a place will not be allocated until payment has been received.

Training Terms & Conditions
The Booking Form constitutes a legally binding agreement. (Note that we do not take provisional bookings).
Cancellations confirmed in writing will be liable for an administration charge of 10%.  
Invoices will be payable upon receipt.
Substitutions will be accepted if notified in writing before the event.
We reserve the right to cancel any course which does not attract sufficient numbers to make running it viable.

The course looks at: why plan?; what is a 'project'?; starting to plan; providing details of your organisation, including what is different about you; SWOT analysis; identifying and analysing the needs to be met; strategy, direction, aims and objectives (SMART); project development and planning, including the structure/stages of a project; finances, and implications for the organisation; promoting the organisation's case; the role of the Project Manager; the processes of project management; allocation of responsibilities (including Gannt and Pert charts) and team management; budgeting; reviewing; risk-management and problem-solving; evaluation at the end of the project.

COMMITTEE SKILLS

By the end of the event, participants will be familiar with:
a) the process involved in writing constitutions and standing orders;
b) the responsibilities and powers of a management committee and of office bearers;
c) setting agendas and taking minutes;
d) proper conduct of the following types of meetings – inaugural, committee and general (including Annual General Meetings and Special/Extraordinary General Meetings).

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

This short course advises on how to make a complaint, how to deal with complaints and how to produce a Complaints Procedure within your organisation. It also provides examples of complaints procedures from various sources.

DATA PROTECTION

This course explains the requirements placed upon organisations holding information about clients, staff and volunteers by the Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2003 and of the enforcement process. It gives advice on how to hold and use personal data in your organisation.

DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION

This course trains organisations in the duties placed upon organisations, companies and public sector bodies by the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 (and its subsequent amendments) and 2005, in employment matters and in the provision of goods, facilities and services. It also highlights the penalties facing those which do not comply with the Act.

DIVERSITY AND INTERVIEW SKILLS

This course makes use of video clips involving one-to-one interviews and related questions to highlight “rights” and “wrongs” in interviewing techniques, using people often regarded as “different” as the interviewees.

EMPLOYMENT LAW AND EMPLOYERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

This course covers all aspects of employment law as they affect voluntary organisations which employ staff. It includes contracts, national minimum wage levels, working time regulations, absence management, disciplinary and grievance procedures, dismissal, discrimination, trade union membership, maternity and paternity leave, adoptive parents’ rights and flexible working.

FUNDING: APPLICATIONS AND REPORTING PRODCEDURES

This course will:
• examine the current funding situation in Scotland;
• describe the support available in seeking funding;
• advise on writing letters of application and on completing application forms;
• give practice in completing application forms;
• detail, and advise on the writing of, other documents and reports to send with the application; and
• advise on how to report to funders (interim & ‘end of grant’ reports).

GROUP DYNAMICS: FACILITATION SKILLS

This short course covers issues such as questions, emotions, concerns and fears experienced before joining a group; the fact that ‘normal’ has a very large number of guises; reading individuals’ ‘body language’; different forms of support which can be offered; and advice on good facilitation techniques.

HOW OSCR REGULATION AFFECTS CHARITIES

By attending this course, you will learn how the powers given to OSCR by the Charities And Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 will affect your organisations and your roles within those organisations.

HOW TO SOURCE THAT FUNDING

The course covers responsibility for funding, all types of funding (local and national; grants and loans), Service Level Agreements, support available from the CVS and the Local Authority, and the changing nature of funding, delivered via a combination of information, advice and practice.

IMPLEMENTING PQASSO

This is currently a two-day course for organisations funded above a certain level by Perth & Kinross Council, although other organisations, with the local authority’s permission, may also attend. The course introduces trainees to the PQASSO quality assurance scheme, which the local authority wants all organisations without such a scheme to implement, and advises on how they might implement it themselves.

MINUTE-TAKING

This course covers the role of the Secretary in an organisation; the importance of minutes; what must be recorded; what may be recorded; minute-taking techniques; and practice in minute-taking, using a ‘mock’ meeting.

RUNNING EFFECTIVE MEETINGS

Attending this course, you will learn:

1. to differentiate between types of meeting;
2. the respective roles of office bearers in an organisation;
3. how to organise different types of meeting;
4. how to set the agenda and take minutes;
5. how to chair meetings properly; and
6. when and how to use voting procedures.

PARTNERSHIP WORKING

Attending this course, you will:
1. study the reasons for the increasing interest in partnership working;
2. consider the difficulties involved and how they can be overcome;
3. hear presentations on some existing partnerships, either active or embryonic;
4. consider how they might become involved in partnership working and with whom;
5. discover how they might form and develop a partnership with (an)other organisation(s); and
6. examine the nature of partnership working.

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

This two-day course covers the topics of leadership; recruitment and selection; supervision of staff and volunteers; stress management; assertiveness; conflict resolution; involvement and empowerment. A variety of training methods are used.

PRESENTATION SKILLS

This course is aimed at all of those who speak to others in their work (in other words, the vast majority of us). If we supervise others, train others, give explanations to management committees, address fellow-members of boards or management committees, are involved in meetings with other organisations, write applications for funding or carry out many other tasks, in a paid or unpaid capacity, we need good presentation skills.

Can we put our message across? Can we hold the listeners’ attention? What impression do we convey about ourselves? Are we easy to understand? Do we waffle, talking much of the time about irrelevant matters? Do we speak in an organised way? These are just some of the important questions which we need to ask. This course will help us to improve our skills in this area.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The course includes: the definition of a project; why plan?; helping projects to succeed; developing the plan (need for it; stakeholders; SWOT analysis; content; SMART objectives; when and how to start a project; role of the Project Manager; management styles; budgeting; monitoring and evaluating the project; completing and reporting on the project; what next? A combination of instruction, advice, discussion and practical exercise are involved in this course.

TELEPHONE SKILLS

This course trains people in the active, participative nature of listening; explains how, in face-to-face conversations, body language sends us messages which we interpret in forming suitable responses; explains the importance of voice signals picked up from the person on the other end of the line; considers barriers to effective listening and ways of encouraging people to give more information; advises in some detail on how to respond to clients in a supportive and effective way, and enables participants to practise in role-play situations.

TIME MANAGEMENT

This course enables participants to look at their typical working day, to consider the real issues of time management in the workplace, to review and analyse their own use of time, and to begin to plan to improve on their current practice.

USE OF POWERPOINT IN PRESENTATIONS

The aim of this course is to enable participants to use PowerPoint effectively in formal presentations. Those attending will gain a better understanding of the communication process, the principles of graphic design, and the use of the visual image.