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The Training Officer will work to ensure that the optional training sessions are as good as possible. They will make sure everything they need to work is organised such as a room, a tutor, an attending committee member, any resources and a plan. They will work to encourage members to attend these and emphasise the use of them. Every week they will make sure members are given at least 7 days notice of new training sessions and will seek feedback following each session. Each year, they will review the yearly plan of training sessions and make amendments based upon volunteer feedback. Finally, they will ensure that the training sessions work to the plan set out.”

Training is a vital part of Make a Smile. It sets us apart from any standard ‘princess party’ business as we need to be better suited at interacting with the children that we visit. It’s the Training Officer’s role to address this without putting off volunteers (hence optional training).

A major challenge that needs to be overcome is ensuring that volunteers engage with the training. This means that it could be made mandatory but may result in putting off potential volunteers, so a balance needs to be struck. Volunteers can be encouraged to attend via incentives such as awards, a welcoming environment such as regular faces and ice breakers, useful training sessions that they want to engage with and ease of access by potentially holding them online or in easy to find rooms at good times.

At the start of the year, the Training Officer should work with the Recruitment Officer to get a regular room booking arranged and pull together a proposed schedule of training based on improvements on previous years and geared towards the type of events that are being done. For example if there are lots of BSL events, BSL training takes higher importance. Before each session, they then need to ensure that there is a capable tutor and a suitable room booked (ideally at a good time, good size and easy to find). After the event, they will then request feedback and ask which sessions people would like to see more of so that the plan can be adapted. They should also ensure the hours of the attendees are logged on the database.

Finding a good tutor can be difficult but collaborations with other societies such as an acting society or a BSL society can provide access to good tutors and alternative opportunities. We don’t pay tutors but if they provide particularly valuable work, they can receive a certificate at the end of the year. If a non-committee tutor is used, another committee member should make sure they attend and carry out the other tasks such as taking a register.

You are overseen by the Training and Conference Manager who will be able to provide support and additional advice in terms of finding tutors, organising training sessions and engaging volunteers. In turn, they will request help with organising the National Conference where you may need to advertise the event and encourage members to attend and with the training portal on the website with creating materials and pushing volunteers to engage.

Finally, you oversee the completion of competencies. These are additional training certificates that Lead Volunteers can work towards to continue bettering their skills. Details of these can be found on the Google Drive but you should ensure that volunteers are aware of them and track their progress to completing them.