Claire McCardle

Volunteer Co-ordinator
Tyneside Cyrenians, Newcastle upon Tyne

Provides housing, training and employment support to homeless people.

Returning from maternity leave to a new job role, Claire decided to take up training to ensure she had the necessary knowledge and skills to manage her volunteers to the highest professional standards.

“I was looking for training that would equip me with the knowledge and skills to implement best practice quickly within my new role as Volunteer Co-ordinator.

“PNE’s Management of Volunteers programme fitted the bill perfectly, giving me the necessary skills and a professional qualification to show everyone that we’re serious about empowering our volunteers to achieve their full potential.”

Claire says she’s found the course immensely helpful in recruiting, inducting, and managing the organisation’s 85 volunteers.

“The programme was directly relevant to my job and enabled me to implement new procedures and make improvements to existing management practices.”

Improvements and new practices that Claire has introduced include: better record keeping; improvements in the ways volunteers can provide feedback; and, better evaluation and monitoring systems. Claire has also run a “Volunteer Celebration Event” to acknowledge the vital role volunteers play in delivering the organisation’s services.

“I feel better able to motivate and support my volunteers to enable them to do the best possible job, which is beneficial to them, the organisation and our service users.”

Claire, who previously pulled out of an NVQ due to the time consuming nature of the assessment, said, “PNE’s work-based evidence and professional discussion approach to the NVQ process is much better because it works with you, not against you.”