Charities and voluntary organisations are losing £28m each year due to inefficient staff training, according to data from a compliance training provider.
Skillcast’s Lost Hours Report found that the charity, voluntary and social enterprise sector accounted for 1.45 million lost hours annually, the fifth highest sector surveyed.
Charity, voluntary or social enterprise organisations surpassed those in manufacturing, information and communications, and financial services for lost training hours, unrealised spend and full-time roles lost.
Its unrealised spend of about £28m, however, was less than double that of business services, which had the highest at more than £65m with 3.3 million lost training hours.
This was out of a national total of more than £416m and the report found a significant amount of time and money was being spent on training that “doesn’t actually make people better at their jobs.”
Dive into charity sector findings
Some 40% of the charity sector was found to have relevant training coverage – a relatively high proportion since the highest reported was central government finance bodies with 50%.
The sector, however, had the second-highest workforce development gap at 45%, topped only by transport and storage, which scored a percentage point higher.
This category refers to the percentage of total training being used on basic maintenance.
Its skills gap density was the second-lowest at 2.9%, a promising indicator for the charity sector, which was bested only in that regard by information and communications at 2%.
Skillcast examined training load, coverage and proficiency indicators across 11 key industry sectors to produce the data.
It did so to find where training time and investment did not translate into workforce capability.
How charities can become more efficient
Vivek Dodd, Skillcast chief executive, said all industries, including the charity sector, could use existing knowledge to improve efficiency, as well as digital tools.
Dodd said: “True efficiency comes from using technology to intelligently target training, ensuring experienced staff aren't held back by going over material they already know.
“Tailoring your sessions to your staff’s capabilities and existing knowledge allows you to reinvest that capacity into the high-value skills training,” he added.
