|
|
Don't keep your skills to yourself- share them
Skillshare is volunteering with your ‘business head on’ and asks staff for a one-off donation of business skills usually requiring between 1 and 20 hours work. Tasks can range from helping a charity with Word training to designing a leaflet or developing a business plan or database. The Skillshare programme is a key component of Zurich Community Trust's employee involvement programme - Zurich Cares.
This year , Skillshares are firmly in the spotlight, thanks to Tony Martin, Zurich Cares Volunteer Manager.
"The value of sharing business skills with the not-for-profit sector as a practical way to contribute to an individual’s professional and personal development is now widely recognised by many organisations," says Tony. "Zurich lead where others follow in respect of Employer Supported Volunteering, and the development of Skillshare throughout 2008 and into 2009 will reinforce our Community Trust as a market leader in the field of Community Involvement”.
Tony is keen to use his extensive network of charities to create meaningful and productive business volunteering opportunities which will be of benefit both to the charity and to the staff volunteer. To date, the majority of the Skillshares have taken place in Swindon and Cheltenham, but the Zurich Cares team is now looking to identify and broker more opportunities in other locations such as Hampshire and Birmingham.
Plans for 2008? To engage 100 Zurich staff in the donation of their business skills, either individually or with a few of their colleagues. The good news is that this number has already been reached - so the hunt is now on to broker even more Skillshare opportunities!
Jason Cripps, Operations Director for ZIG Management has completed two skillshares with Koalas and The Big Issue and needs no persuading of the benefits.
“The idea of Skillshare is not for us to do everything for the charity but for us to share our knowledge and experiences in a different way and adapt them to be useful within a different environment. Taking on a Skillshare was a daunting experience and one I wasn’t sure about at first – did I have the time, could I add value to another organisation, would I enjoy the experience and was I afraid of missing the point. Together, working with these organisations, we can achieve great things and extend our own personal development to levels that would not be possible through our normal training approach.”
This is definitely not the last you will hear of Skillshare in 2008. As evidenced by Jason, the scheme has an incredibly strong impact on those staff members who take up the opportunities, with marked increases in self-confidence and self-esteem. There is a tendency for professionals to take their business skills for granted, and working for a short period of time with an organisation that does not possess those skills, makes volunteers aware of just how good they are at what they do. So it's a definite 'win' for both the charity and the volunteer.
|
|
