The Wheel: Training Links

Overview

Training Links funds networks of community and voluntary organisations to design and deliver upskilling programmes to meet their shared training needs. Take this incredible opportunity to apply for funding to upskill your workers, and enhance your organisation’s impact.

The Training Links Programme aims to:

• Promote and support the establishment of Training Networks across the nonprofit community
• Encourage collaboration between networks of members
• Facilitate the provision of high-quality customised training
• Build skills among people working in community and voluntary organisations.

Funding

Training Networks are invited to apply for grants ranging from €10,000.00 to €50,000.00. There is a total fund of €255,000.00 available and applications are welcome from new, existing, previously funded networks who have completed their programme or previously unsuccessful networks.

Call for proposals 2024-2026

Training Links seeks to fund innovative and tailored solutions to the upskilling needs that Training Networks identify. Networks are encouraged to research training options that specifically target their needs, rather than off-the-shelf options.

Training Networks will develop, deliver, monitor and evaluate innovative training and development solutions in the priority areas:

1. Digital Transformation: training workers to support the use of digital technologies in organisations.
2. Enhancing leadership and management skills to increase organisational impact and high-performance workplace practices, including strong governance, wellformed strategy, and agile and effective management and planning.
3. Green Transition: training workers to support organisations’ sustainable practices and goals.
4. Developing new business models; new approaches to earning-income and fundraising; and new models for working with statutory funding partners.Achieving high-quality, innovative and responsive workplaces and services, demonstrating impact, and communicating that effectively.Addressing current sector priorities such as re-engaging volunteers, retaining staff, collaborative working, measuring impact, new ways of working etc.

Applications focussed on these priority areas that also address one or more of the following cross-cutting challenges are especially welcome:

• build skills on a regional basis
• focus on labour market inclusion, particularly those that include workers who are less likely to directly engage in training themselves.
• support a culture of lifelong learning across the workforce
• build skills in a sub-sector that is developing or is otherwise under-represented

Who?

Community and voluntary organisations come together and form a ‘network’ in their region, sector, or community of interest. Networks will have a minimum of ten members and work together, over the course of the programme, to address a specific workforce training goal. Applications are welcome from new networks, previously funded networks who have completed the programme, and previously unsuccessful networks.

What?

Empowering community and voluntary organisations to identify and respond to their own training needs by designing innovative and tailored training solutions, based on priority areas (see Section 3 of overview).

Why?

To support community and voluntary organisations, and their workforce, to gain the skills needed to adapt and respond to the constantly shifting technological, social, environmental, economic, and cultural context in which the sector operates.

How?

Funding networks of community and voluntary organisations to design and deliver upskilling programmes to meet their own training needs, which they otherwise would not be able to do on their own. Training Links funds up to 80% of budget costs for funded networks.

When?

Over an 18-month period from July 2024 – January 2026.

Funder?

The programme is part-funded by the National Training Fund, under responsibility of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Fund manager

The Wheel

Training Links Programme Objectives

The objectives of the Training Links Programme 2024-2026 are:

1. To build skills amongst people working in community and voluntary organisations in specific priority areas (the priority areas for the 2022-2024 programme are outlined in Section 3).

2. To promote and support a cohesive and organisational-led approach to training and learning especially within small and medium organisations, enabling increased awareness of and access to training options through the establishment of Training Networks across the sector.

3. To promote and encourage collaboration within and between networks of organisations so that ideas, initiatives and best practice in training and development can be identified and shared, resulting in cost-effective and innovative solutions to joint training needs.

4. To facilitate the provision of quality customised training that supports the evolving needs of the nonprofit workforce.

See Guidance Notes for more information

Grants Awarded

The results for Training Links 2022-2024 - 10 new networks have been awarded a grant. The total fund this year was €270,000.00. Grants were provided to the value of between €10,000.00 - €40,000.00. The successful Training Networks are made up of 119 organisations. Between them, they work across the nonprofit sector and address a diverse range of training needs.