Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Building capacity and training opportunities for the community and voluntary sector is key to realising the intent of sustainable, inclusive and empowered communities, the Government's five-year strategy to support the sector. The strategy details clear commitments in respect of training. Action 2.1 commits to support community groups and organisations to identify and meet their training needs. It commits to implement a formal programme of training to meet these needs and support capacity in groups and organisations. Action 2.2 commits to design, promote and implement a comprehensive programme to support capacity among leaders, board members and volunteers of community and voluntary organisations, including voluntary board members of local and community development organisations. Action 2.3 commits to support capacity in public participation networks, in particular in respect of the social inclusion colleges. Action 2.4 commits to develop education and training mechanisms based on the all-Ireland standards for community work for those charged with implementing and monitoring community development.

The implementation plan agreed for 2021 includes a modular research project into the training needs of the sector and this is under way. There are three separate reports. The first will examine the training needs of the local community development committees in preparation for the local economic and community plan, LECP, reviews. The second will involve an assessment of the skills gap of voluntary boards of mid-sized organisations. The third will involve an assessment of skills gaps across smaller community and voluntary groups. I expect the recommendations arising from these research reports will feed in to further considerations across government on how best to support the training and development needs of the sector.

In the meantime, training for the sector is being addressed in a number of other ways across my Department and across government, with tailored supports as required that have been identified in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders.

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