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Volunteer training to boost economy
22/03/2010
UK business would benefit greatly from directly linking training and volunteering, according to a new report by the Social Market Foundation, supported by The Scout Association.
The Benefits of Employee Volunteering for Business and Individuals brings together leading voices from politics, business and the voluntary sector to draw attention to the economic merits of employee volunteering.
Writing in the report, UK Chief Commissioner for Scouting Wayne Bulpitt said that ‘helping employers and government better recognise the role that volunteering can play in improving skills is essential’. He asserted that achieving this will ‘not only improve the health of our society but also the strength of our national economy’.
Volunteer skills
Scouting received a National Training Award from UK Skills in 2009 and many of The Scout Association’s 100,000 adult volunteers transfer what they learn through Scouting into the workplace. Many employers now recognise that encouraging volunteering can deliver a reciprocal business boost.
But with 35,000 young people on waiting lists to join Scouting due to a lack of adult volunteers, Wayne stressed that much more can be done. ‘It is not lack of enthusiasm but a lack of time that is behind this shortage,’ he stated.
A number of possible solutions were cited in the report including:
• extend the support for skills training in the further and higher education sector to the voluntary sector
• address employer concerns relating to the level of skills training by accrediting schemes
• statutory paid leave for training-related volunteering
• offering payment holidays on student loans
Employee development
Elsewhere in the publication, Tessa Jowell MP, Cabinet Minister for the Cabinet Office, said the ‘economic contribution made by volunteers amounts to more than £27bn’ and described the desire to volunteer as ‘something that’s too often taken as a given rather than celebrated’.
The Director of the Social Market Foundation, Ian Mulheirn, believes that ‘with many organisations still struggling to fund training and development for staff, there has never been a better time to explore and recognise the potential of skills-based employee volunteering schemes.’
The Scout Association is already examining ways to facilitate this; allowing people to volunteer for shorter periods and arranging a more flexible programme. It is now calling on the next government to help.
‘Enabling staff to volunteer is a cost-effective way of teaching a wide variety of skills,’ explains Wayne. ‘Through helping employees perform better at their job, volunteering can help equip the UK’s workforce for the challenges of the modern economy.’
More information
Download the full report
The Scout Association is the largest co-educational youth movement in the UK. It strives to ensure that its young people fulfil their full physical, intellectual social and spiritual potentials by working in teams, learning by doing and thinking for themselves. Adults working in Scouting contribute in excess of 364 million hours of voluntary work each year to their local communities. Join the adventure
The Social Market Foundation is a leading UK think tank, developing innovative ideas across a broad range of economic and social policy.
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