Training Ideas, Resources, Tools

Not long ago, three Volunteer Centres in neighboring communities near the Waterloo-Wellington area of Ontario, Canada were all trying to provide top-quality training and professional development for their member organizations. After noticing that many topics of interest were the same in all three communities, representatives from each centre concluded that the combined resources of three centres were better than one. Which begged the question: Could they work together as a team to deliver the best possible training and education programs?

The answer was a big, resounding “Yes.”  A few months later, the seed that would eventually grow into the Waterloo-Wellington Learning Alliance (WWLA) was planted.

In this Training Designs, authors Sarah Daly and Joanna Michalski describe how the three Volunteer Centres worked together in 2010 to create a partnership benefiting all three of their communities. Though the authors admit that creating WWLA has been a “rollercoaster of learning curves,” they use this Training Designs to share examples of how community-focused collaboration strategies can translate into training and professional development opportunities that other volunteer organizations can benefit from and implement, too.  

The Training Designs feature of e-Volunteerism is based on the recognition that orientation, induction, and training are critical to the success of each volunteer and to the entire volunteer involvement effort. Great training starts volunteers on the path to positive service experience and helps provide the greatest benefit to the organization, too. In this issue, new Training Designs Editor Karin Davis begins her tenure with an article on how basic adult learning principles can enhance volunteer training. You don’t have to be an expert in adult development to understand and apply these principles, but knowing them will make you a more effective trainer.

Volunteers increasingly come to organizations with expectations that their involvement will be supported by the smart use of new technologies – during recruitment, induction, and in their actual volunteering. As shown in previous Training Designs, the Internet and video have the potential to revolutionize how we welcome and train volunteers and support their ongoing learning and development. In this issue, Laura Hamilton shares how George House Trust in the UK uses webinars and other e-learning tools to support the orientation and briefing of volunteers for one-off events and also to enhance organizational induction for all volunteers. Hamilton offers a step-by-step guide to successfully incorporate online learning from the start of volunteer engagement.

Sarah Jane Rehnborg has more than a decade in the classroom – teaching volunteer management on the graduate level to students from public affairs, business management, social work, communications, fine arts and other areas of specialization. Along the way, Rehnborg found some interesting resources and methods to convey some of the key concepts in volunteer management. Since her students are frequently new to studying volunteer issues, these teaching tools are equally applicable to any audience that needs to be educated about our field.

In Part 1 of this article presented here, Rehnborg explores a teachnique for developing role-play scenarios and the use of current events in the classroom. In Part 2, presented in the next issue of e-Volunteerism, Rehnborg features ways to explore critical thinking skills, the value of guest speakers and the complexity of internship experiences. In both, Rehnborg shares useful resources that will inform your own knowledge of the field, while helping you develop presentations that capture critical volunteer managemnt issues for paid colleagues and volunteers as they learn the ropes of working with the community.

In this issue, guest author Emma Corrigan shares resources that enable volunteers to summarize meaningful information about their volunteering experience – and turn it into great material for their CVs or résumés. Corrigan, a Volunteer Coordinator for the housing and homelessness charity called Shelter in England and Scotland, presents this step-by-step activity as a way to support, thank and provide development for volunteers.

Granted, many volunteer resources managers do not necessarily see the daily, frontline work of volunteers – a reality that makes Corrigan’s training design all the more useful. Corrigan’s simple yet innovative design highlights how easily others in the organization can share responsibility for recognizing volunteers' contributions. And by helping volunteers turn their experiences into résumé-building narratives, Corrigan shows how an organization can provide a very individual "thank you" to each volunteer. 

Leaders of volunteers often feel pressured to know the right responses or to solve all the problems presented to them. In this Training Designs article, Sue Jones challenges this perception. Jones asks volunteer leaders to consider the value of supporting individuals and helping them self-identify their own solutions, and then reflect on what they learn from their volunteering experiences.

According to Jones, the volunteer field can benefit from techniques used in the coaching field, which emphasize the use of insightful questions and focus on listening rather than telling or explaining. Jones shares examples of how leaders of volunteers might adapt these techniques in working with volunteers. She describes some of the key skills required in this reflective practice approach, and provides practical tips to help volunteer leaders start and practice this questioning approach.

Take a tour of some of the technology tools currently being used in learning design and delivery.  In this issue, Sue Jones introduces a range of new learning platforms and explores the potential for organisations to further develop and enhance the ways they train volunteers. Jones also reviews some of the familiar and less familiar terms and labels emerging from this area, including social learning, e-learning and m-learning, with examples from her own and others’ experiences. And she provides comment and insight on some of her favourite learning technology articles and blogs, all designed  to help readers discover more about this evolving field.

As the new editor of the Training Designs section, Sue Jones shares her perspective on the importance of training in volunteer management. In her first column for e-Volunteerism, she notes that training is not the same as learning, and that leaders of volunteers need to recognize all the opportunities to increase the skills and understanding of every volunteer. In fact, she makes the case that concern for learning is vital to each stage of a volunteer’s experience, from newcomer to veteran. After reading this Training Design, we predict you’ll look at training from a whole new viewpoint and become more intentional in daily training activities.