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About Skills - Third Sector

Skills - Third Sector helps to make sure that charities and social enterprises have the right people with the right skills to make a difference to people and their communities.

A thriving voluntary sector is crucial to building stronger communities and delivering good quality services.

Charities, social enterprises and other not for profit organisations need people with the right skills in the right numbers to be able to make a difference to the people and communities they serve.

We work with national, regional and local organisations to:

  • provide information and resources
  • develop national skills standards and qualifications
  • and carry out research to prove why skills matter to our sector.

How we work

Our small team of staff are based in the offices of skills councils and strategic partnership organisations around the country, including York, Manchester, Leeds and London.

Our head office is hosted at Voluntary Action Sheffield. Working from host organisations gives us direct and tangible links with the regions and some of our key partners.

Our approach is to work collaboratively. We work with other organisations to carry our research into what skills the sector needs. Our skills standards and resources are developed by steering groups of expert practitioners and we consult closely with the sector to develop our products and strategies. We publicise the ways that you can get involved in our work in the relevant pages of this website.

Vision

Charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations have the right people with the right skills to make a difference for people and communities.

Purpose

We will do this by:

  • Developing high quality evidence of our sector’s talents and skills needs
  • Developing recognised standards and qualifications that support quality learning opportunities fit for the future needs of the sector
  • Making a measurable difference in skills policy and delivery to the sector

Values

As an organisation we are:

  • Informed – we know about and understand our sector
  • Authoritative – we provide the trusted voice on skills for our sector
  • Innovative – we find creative ways to increase opportunities for learning
  • Collaborative – we work in partnership with other leading organisations

Our funding

Skills - Third Sector is an independent charity set up to champion the skills needs of the staff, volunteers and trustees in charities, social enterprises and other not for profit organisations.

Initial funding from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the then Office for the Third Sector (now Office of Civil Society) in the Cabinet Office is supporting work to develop national skills standards and qualifications based on those standards. It is also supporting research into the skills needs of the voluntary sector and the exchange of good practice both within the sector and across Sector Skills Councils.

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