How to make workforce training fit your needs 

The following article was recently featured in Charity Today on 20 January 2025.

Whether you’re a large, medium, or small charity, workforce training can be extremely challenging.  

While traditional, regulated qualifications provide a strong foundation, job roles within the charity sector often require highly specific skillsets tailored to your unique mission. This presents an opportunity to create specialist, customised learning that addresses unique competency gaps. 

Contracts and tenders won by charities can also come with a requirement to carry out bespoke training that must be quality assured, and that’s before we get onto delivering training that supports service users.  

As well as being an awarding organisation and skills specialist, NCFE is also an education charity, so we’ve experienced these pain points firsthand. One of the areas we can support charities to overcome these hurdles is through accreditation.  

Awarding body recognition for employee training adds value for colleagues through a stamp of approval from a specialist educational institution.  

NCFE can also support training programmes within the community that are designed to overcome barriers beneficiaries face, such as around employability, with digital credentials then used as a tangible outcome to recognise their achievements. 

Accreditation in action 

The best example of this is our work with Save the Children to raise the standards of child protection around the world. With over 25,000 staff across 116 countries responding to humanitarian emergencies, the charity delivers development programmes and amplifies children’s voices through its campaigns. 

Clare Allsopp, Learning Specialist at Save the Children, explained: “We required NCFE’s help to support Save the Children in reinforcing objective and consistent standards of excellence. NCFE developed unique accreditation criteria based on our Save the Children technical competency frameworks for us to work from.  

“Our participants have reported feeling more recognised and valued for their professional expertise. The programme has also had an impact on our staff retention; participants who have completed the programme feel more supported and clearer about their career development within the organisation, with some also leveraging their accreditation to move into more senior roles.” 

At the other end of the scale, we've also worked with Stockport Homes Group to develop a programme that helps its residents develop their wellbeing and employability skills and empower them to get back into the workforce. 

Christopher Hughes, Customer Training Officer at Stockport Homes Group, said: "Our aim is to guide our customers towards outcomes such as higher education, employment, voluntary work, community involvement, or improved health and wellbeing. 

"To my knowledge, we’re the only housing provider offering this programme or something similar. The accredited qualification already has a good record for helping people into work, as we’ve had learners gain employment at Stockport Homes after completing the course."   

The right training for your needs 

The two organisations above couldn’t be more different in terms of their scale of operations, but the unifying factor is their need for bespoke training to fit a bespoke need.  

One developed and validated quality, training that equipped its workforce with the skills they needed to confidently carry out their roles. The other recognised the achievements of service users and helped them to overcome barriers.  

While accreditation can be hard to define at times, that’s also its strength. The expertise we have can help charities to co-create a qualification that is customised and contextualised to their needs, pain points, opportunities, and organisational values.  

The only question is, what could you use accredited training to do? 

Find out more about our accreditation and employer services by visiting our Accreditation hub here.