HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS COMMUNITY CAPACITY PARTNERSHIP (HICCaP)

Background
Capacity building is widely regarded as a key task facing the third sector in order for it to take the evolving role which is envisaged in current public policy thinking. The sector is seen as playing a pivotal role in shaping policy and taking decisions, through community planning and a broad range of other initiatives, and it is also seen as having an important role to play in actually delivering development, particularly in the most disadvantaged communities. It can do this through contracting with the public sector to deliver services, through its crucial role in the social economy, and through broader community life and the nurturing of social capital and cohesion.

The development of skills in the third sector, although not the only dimension to capacity building, is strategically the most significant, not least because an expanding skills base should enable the sector to address many of the other elements from within itself.

However, development of skills in an area such as the Highlands and Islands is complex and it has taken some time, thought and consultation with the sector to come to a holistic view of what might be required.  It is vital to take into account not only what skills are required but also the best methods of delivery, bearing in mind the particular nature of the Highlands & Islands on the one hand, and the infrastructure of the third sector, locally and nationally, on the other.

The situation can be analysed as follows:

Firstly, there is a distinction between what can be thought of as generic skills and sectoral skills.

Generic skills
By generic skills we mean the broad management skills (such as financial planning, strategic planning, employment law, etc), needed by all voluntary groups, whether they be in the arts, welfare, or sports subsectors. They are required by both paid workers and volunteers, particularly at board or management committee level, and they may be accessed either programmatically through an integrated course of study, or in modular fashion, as and when need and opportunity arise.

Specific skills
Specific skills areas are wide and varied but could range from anything like football training (sports sector) to first aid training (welfare sector) and child protection (childcare sector).

Having made this distinction, there is a second important distinction to make within the field of generic skills. This is between the skilling of individuals, both as paid managers and as volunteers, and the skilling of whole organisations, which can be referred to as quality training. HICCaP is interested in both aspects but it is important to distinguish them and to recognise that, though complementary, they require different approaches.

Skills of individuals, both paid managers and volunteers
The first key aspect to understand is the programmatic skilling of paid workers, particularly managers. HICCAP's primary task here is to promote to the sector, and to the individuals it employs, the importance of both career development through management training and of accrediting the training on offer. This is a promotional activity, leading to the emergence of a skills culture in the sector.  It is not necessary to develop any fresh products to satisfy any demand that is created, as there are a number of well-regarded training products already available at the national level. The challenge is to make impartial information on these courses freely available and easily accessible, leaving people free to make their own choices as to which suits their individual purposes best. It is also desirable that paid managers update particular skills on an occasional adhoc basis, as and when need and opportunity arise.

Skilling of Groups
Second is training for whole groups and again, this has two dimensions.  The institutional training which whole groups go through together as a cohort can be referred to as quality schemes, although it is recognised that this term also has a technical meaning which varies slightly from usage of it here. As with the training for paid managers there already appears to be a number of products available, which have national backing. Examples are Investors in People, EQMS, ABCD, LEAP, SCVO’s Big Picture. Each of these has its own merits and groups will choose the one which is most appropriate to them.

The other dimension is that third sector groups also have an on-going need for ad hoc modular training in generic skills which all their personnel - professional or voluntary - require, but which the whole group does necessarily undertake as a cohort. Minute taking, chairing meetings, treasurership and IT skills would be examples. There is plenty of such training available, much of it local, but there has historically been a significant problem for groups in identifying what is available and accessing it.

HICCaP was established as a partnership between the third sector and the agencies operating in the Highland & Islands to deliver community regeneration and third sector skills development. We seek to deliver the aims of SCVO's workforce development project for the benefit of organisations operating in the Highlands & Islands area. Our project parnters are drawn from third sector infrastructure networks, individual voluntary organisations and key statutory agencies including both Local Authorities and Health Boards and the overall work programme is based on the analysis of skills development needs as given above.  HICCaP focuses its work through five main aims:

-    To support third sector organisations to raise their awareness of the benefits of learning 
-    To increase the number and type of learning opportunities available across the Highlands & Islands
-    To increase the skills levels of third sector organisations operating in the Highlands & Islands
-    To promote and develop the HICCaP market place as a prime source of training information and support
-    To work with and support the infrastructure bodies and key stakeholders responsible for developing skills

Together these activities represent the most significant single step forward in skills promotion in the Highlands & Islands third sector for some years.