Anil Ranchod, Stroke Association Not having a degree hasn’t stopped me Expand The positivity and commitment in the charity sector is infectious I don’t have a degree simply because we couldn’t afford it. So I came into the charity sector as a temp, 23 years ago and was amazed by the people I met. Here was a talented, friendly, passionate group of people whose motivation was to make a difference. Their positivity and commitment was infectious and on securing a permanent position, I was hooked. I still try to imbue those qualities in the teams I work with. The first team I worked with taught me loads about being a professional My first charity job was as Marketing Assistant at the NSPCC. I was working as a temp supporting one of the officers and the role came up and I went for it. I’ll never forget, there were over 200 applicants, so I felt very lucky and honoured to even get an interview. My main role was to support the Marketing Manager and the team, who were brilliantly supportive and taught me loads on integrity and being a professional. My background was in managing a small mail order business and banking. I believe it was my can-do attitude and pragmatic approach to finding solutions coupled with a hunger to learn. I learned on the job I was really pleased that in five years at NSPCC, I learned on the job and reached Senior Marketing Communications Officer by the time I left. In 2003, I decided to go into PR and started my career again. Again, surrounded by some brilliant and supportive people, I managed to achieve lots of successes. One of my biggest successes is that I created and successfully delivered the UK’s stroke awareness month, now known as Make May Purple for stroke. We’ve won several awards and it has been featured in PR Week. Not having a degree hasn’t stopped me (but it’s easier teaching someone who wants to learn) If you’re thinking of working in the charity sector: do it because you care. All too often I see people coming into the sector because they think it’s less demanding than the private sector, but that is quite the opposite. I’m proud to say that I have always worked for causes I feel strongly about and that’s my motivation. Don’t be afraid to show your passion and don’t give up at the first hurdle. Not having a degree hasn‘t stopped me, as I continue to show my passion and commitment to the cause. But that’s not enough. You need to be aware that you’re learning – ask questions and don’t be afraid to say you don’t know something and you need support. It’s easier to teach someone who wants to learn.
Anna Feuchtwang, CEO, National Children’s Bureau I learn best by doing Expand Anna is the Chief Executive of NCB. She is also the Vice-chair of Asylum Aid, a charity which provides free legal advice and representation to the most vulnerable and excluded asylum seekers, and lobbies and campaigns for an asylum system based on inviolable human rights principles. Starting out in the voluntary sector “At 18 I wasn’t particularly interested in academic study, I was more interested in learning by doing. While there were strong expectations that I would go to university, when I didn’t get the required A levels it helped me focus on what I wanted to do most – which was to become a journalist. I was a journalist on a local paper and actively involved in international campaigns like the Anti-Apartheid Movement. When a job came up at Oxfam working as a press officer on campaigns it seemed like the perfect combination of my interests. I stayed with Oxfam for over ten years and had been promoted to Head of Communications by the time I left. Professional development My early development as a manager came primarily from being a trade union rep and receiving excellent training from the TUC and the National Union of Journalists. For the past ten years I’ve learned most from being part of a peer learning group using a technique called action learning. I benefitted greatly from an excellent coach when I first became a chief executive. My skills have also been developed by in-house training and development. Successes I led a consortium of international organisations to deliver a joint programme celebrating the lives of people living on the zero degrees meridian line as part of the UK’s Millennium event. It became the centre piece of Channel Four’s Millennium programming and featured in the Millennium Dome. I also created an international partnership owned and governed by its national member organisations who together change the lives of children living outside of family care and who support families to stay together. Anna has also been the Chair of ActionAid UK and the Chair of Bond, the membership organisation for the UK’s international development organisations. After working for Oxfam, Anna became Director of Communications and Public Affairs at the Association of London Government where she worked with London’s 33 authorities on child protection issues following the Victoria Climbie case and the introduction of Every Child Matters legislation.
Cathy Shimmin, Senior Training Manager, Directory for Social Change 5 ways round the degree Expand “I had a vague idea but not really a plan” When I was little I always wanted to teach. I had a vague idea but not really a plan. I was doing well in school until I hit about 14 (hormones, world experience, divorce – parents not mine!) and just lost interest in school. I busked my way through a handful of ‘O’ levels and got out of there as quickly as I could. For the next nine or so years I crawled my way through various jobs: waitressing, shop work, architect’s assistant, clothes concession manager, data entry clerk (even in shipping 1980’s job titles were not aspirational), bar manager, gym receptionist and tons of temping office type jobs. It all just seemed like an aimless meandering at the time. However, when I look back, some of this experience gave me the best grounding in the world of work. I worked with all sorts of people at all sorts of levels in huge variety of settings. I learned loads about team work and masses about good and bad management and leadership – real experiential learning. In the early 90’s I left my gym job (very telling when you look at me!) and had my first ever period of unemployment. The Dublin job centre made me go for an interview with a charity, Carmichael Centre (a little like UK CVSs). It was for a role as Assistant to the Director. I told her honestly that I didn’t have a clue why FAS had sent me but that I was very organised and efficient, had a good work ethic and that ‘it might be a blast to work for a charity for a change’. (Do not try this line if you are going for an interview with a charity. The sector and Equal Opps interviews are a bit more sophisticated nowadays.) I got lucky. She liked me and we gave it go. 1. Get someone who believes in you and is prepared to mentor you. The late Kate O’Sullivan was a truly wonderful mentor to me at Carmichael Centre. I PA’d for her for about 10 months and then she created a project for me to manage full time. It was working with people who had been long term unemployed and I loved it. I had some real learning curves as I moved into managing other people but found a niche in working with people to help them find out about how they could move forward in their careers. 2. Find something you are sincerely passionate about. I had a real interest in helping people who had left school early and not quite found their place in the world (wonder where that came from?). I had a genuine belief that most had much more potential than they were realising. With that belief as a starting point, it becomes easy to help people. During my five years in this role I got lots of experience and some qualifications in Management and computer skills (it was all still quite new then). One year we had a shortfall in funds for providing some aspects of our job-seeking skills training. Kate, pushy as ever, decided I could do it myself. “You know how to write applications, you’ve had tons of interviews – think about your experience, read about the theory and put it into something that looks like a workshop.” Aaaarrrgghh! “I just kept looking for opportunities to grow my skills” I did it though. It worked. I loved it … and I remembered that I had always wanted to teach. So I just kept looking for opportunities to grow my skills. I loved that job but needed to re-group and think about the future. I took some time out to think about it. Working at the Directory for Social Change The first thing they said at my DSC interview was “So, tell us how you got to this stage in your career’. Wow! I had a career – how did that happen? I told them about how I just loved to help people learn and grow, and was a proficient administrative manager and loved working with charities. DSC would be a great place to get a bird’s eye view of the sector and learn more about training and events. They offered, I accepted and my 6 months has become 15 years. During that time I’ve had a few roles at DSC – all within their training services. 3. Let those who can help know what you want to do and what you need to do it. The CEO, Debra Allcock Tyler, took over after I had been there for a couple of years. She had 1-1’s with every member of staff when she joined (good practice by the way) and during mine I ranted on about how much I loved training and wanted more opportunity to deliver than just organise and manage it. She listened. Debra was my second mentor and lived up to all my expectations of what a good mentor should be. She gave me an initial six weeks’ mentoring, threw me in the deep end, gave me some course titles I could deliver, told me to get the material together, gave me some delivery dates – and then supported me all the way. I learned more from that experience and mentoring in six weeks than I could have learned in any three-year teaching degree – experiential learning that I could use in a practical way. At that time I was the In House Training Manager at DSC as a result of a couple of internal promotions. I was doing both this and trying to get training experience in. 4. Say yes to some of the stuff you don’t like doing, get noticed and learn from it. One budget planning period I mentioned that it could be economically wise for DSC to employ some trainers on a full time basis. Debra said, ‘write me a proposal, with the numbers in’. Do you know, I nearly didn’t. I hate writing to structure and well, numbers, we’ve been there. I still have a copy of that e-mail and proposal I sent to Debra and I still have my job as the first trainer DSC took on as an employee. I love it. 5. Keep learning! Most careers worth their salt are a journey rather than a destination. I loved learning to be a trainer and am still learning. Every day I deliver a training course I give myself some review time afterwards to see what I can change, add, take out, learn from that day – no matter how many times I have delivered it before. Passion and commitment above qualifications If you have a genuine interest in the field you pursue, if you demonstrate your willingness and commitment to learning, if you look out for and maximise opportunities that work well for the organisation as well as yourself, you are much more likely to be hired for your attitude, and given the skills training along the way. The voluntary sector is a rewarding and challenging place to work. We do so much with so little. Never worry that the ‘little’ is about your academic attainment. The ‘much’ is about your passion and commitment. If you have that, go for it, it’s always a commodity in demand in this sector and certainly what I would look for in recruits in my field – always over and above qualifications.
Cheryl Stagg, Administrative Assistant, Barnardo’s I did an apprenticeship instead Expand I didn’t go to uni because I wasn’t sure about my career path in school: I went to college and ended up enrolling on an aviation course, which I completed it but it wasn’t really for me. I was keen to make a difference I was motivated to work for a charity in the first place because I was keen to make a difference and decided on a meaningful career. I chose Barnardo’s because it’s a well-known organisation. When I came to Barnardo’s they helped me to apply for the Business Admin apprenticeship vacancy in the office. I was successful. I have good communication skills which have helped me to learn new skills around the workplace. I completed my L2 & L3 Business Administration apprenticeship with the help of Palmersville Training and I am now employed as a full time admin assistant. I have been working in the Charity Sector since October 2011 and really enjoy my job and the challenges that come with it. Doing an apprenticeship I really enjoyed the experience and learning different tasks such as covering reception and collecting evidence for my portfolio. I had lots of support from the staff, including my tutor who I had regular reviews with to go through my learning plan. I felt welcomed and realised that administration was what I wanted to do as a career. If you don’t have a degree and want to work for a charity – go for it I would tell young people to go for it. I didn’t want to do a degree – and now I have a Level 3 in Business Administration and I’ve got a great job at Barnardo’s. I really enjoy my job and every day is different. I’m taking on extra responsibilities and hope to progress in my role in the future.
James Fookes, Policy and Public Affairs Coordinator, The Children's Society Expand Frontline work and lived experience are more useful to policy than a degree I worked instead of going to uniWhen all my friends were going to university, I spent a year working. I felt pressure to go to university, but also felt needed at home. I saved the money I earned, unsure whether I’d spend it travelling or going to uni later on. I’ve always been an activistI’ve been volunteering since I was 15, when I joined the Terrence Higgins Trust’s youth leadership scheme. They’re a really empowering employer and gave our team of young people commissioner-style powers to allocate funding to youth projects on sexual health. When I was a teenager my friends and I supported a daycare centre for families in my area who couldn’t afford childcare over the summer holidays. Volunteering led me to my first paid jobI had this idea of doing police training so I could learn about human trafficking, which was the issue I really wanted to work on. But I quickly realised the police wouldn’t suit me! Terrence Higgins Trust has a ‘no degree needed’ culture and a great organic system where young people who’ve been involved informally can stay with the charity, moving into more formal roles. So when I moved to London to finally start a degree in philosophy, they employed me as an LGBT Community Engagement Officer, essentially running outreach services for HIV testing and support. THT were supportive of me studying while I was working for them, but in no way needed me to get the degree – the qualities they need in their frontline staff are honesty, openness, friendliness and being non-judgemental, and I had those already. Would I have got my first job in policy without my degree? I hope soI started working part-time as Policy and Campaigns Officer for THT while I was also part-time Community Engagement Officer. Although I’d got my degree by that point, I think it was my other experience that they thought qualified me for a policy role – I’d done lots of campaigning and internships and of course knew the cause and the organisation’s values well by then. Unfortunately, there is a false divide between ‘service delivery’ jobs and ‘policy’ jobs when I think it’s important to have people who’ve done both. Frontline experience is more useful in policy than a degreeI would never work in a policy area I didn’t have practical experience of. When my job at THT finished as a result of a restructure, I went to Greece on the spur of the moment, and ended up helping to support the refugee population there. That experience now feeds into my work for the Migrant and Refugee Children’s Consortium at The Children’s Society, where policy work enables me to focus my activism. Find your causeMy advice to young people who want to work in a policy and campaigns role is to get involved in the issues you feel strongly about. If you look around your community, there will be plenty of projects and campaigns that need help – just ask how you can be useful. And that includes on issues you’ve got personal experience of: if something unjust is making you angry or frustrated, you can channel that into activism. After all, there’s a lot for young people to feel angry about, and good policy making needs their voices.
Joanna Manning, National Lead Substance Misuse, The Children’s Society People have always seen the potential in me Expand As someone who entered the sector in 1991 as a volunteer with few qualifications, I welcome your campaign. I left grammar school at 16 with no qualifications and little aspiration. Although I always kind of felt I had something to offer – empathy and understanding. I grew up in a working class family who didn’t go to university or have degrees, plus as a family we had our own share of dysfunction and stress to deal with. In my career I have been lucky and people have always seen the potential in me and looked beyond qualifications. As a manager in a children’s charity I too have done the same with others and the service and especially the service users have benefitted as a result.
Norma Hornby, Youth Worker I got more out of my studies by starting in direct delivery Expand Firstly I worked with young people in the voluntary sector from the age of 18, on a part time basis because I was studying science through a day release scheme and working in a laboratory. Gradually my enthusiasm for youth work took over: I worked on a full time basis and didn’t take my professional qualifications for another fifteen years. Looking back, I got so much out of my studies because I had that background in direct delivery. Evidenced based portfolios compensated for fewer GCSEs and A levels For the past twenty years or more I have focussed on enabling young people to progress through the same route, from full engagement in decision making, planning and delivery to young leaders, volunteers, sessional workers and then full time workers: some who demonstrated the aptitude for academic study became graduates and often their very varied and evidenced based portfolios compensated for fewer GCSEs and A levels. Equal partners in a youth-led youth project From 2001 onwards I was fortunate enough to be able to involve local young people in restructuring a local charity – a youth worker’s dream because we were equal partners in this process. Ten young people who were thirteen years old at that time secured a Children Fund Grant and they consulted their peers before developing a highly exciting youth led social inclusion project. Those young people really pushed the boundaries out in terms of innovation in youth work. The same progression route worked for them also and for the next thirteen years those young people nurtured the next two tranches of younger youth workers. This experience confirmed for me that young people have the capacity and the commitment to deliver high quality youth work providing they have access to training and good supervision. Despite that fact that each of these young people lived in a deprived community and their school was placed in special measures, each one has achieved a good career and seven out of ten did graduate as teachers or in youth work-related fields. Young people can and will change the face of youth work I believe that young people can be highly skilled practitioners, providing the charity has one professionally qualified youth worker to ensure that their learning and personal development is of the highest possible standard. Initially that person should ensure the resources are available so that young youth workers can maximize their contact time with young people. As long as all young people have a progression route and they are respected and valued by more mature staff and trustees. Young people can and will change the face of youth work. However they must be paid a fair wage and have access to all in service training in localities: the real skill of the graduate worker has always been to facilitate and enable, so nothing new really. We need both graduates and non-graduates So, for exciting, responsive to local need and empathetic youth work delivery, give me young people any day: for vision, compassion and willingness to work evenings weekends and at peak holiday times, younger staff are very often the most likely to deliver. However there is still an important role for the graduate youth worker because monitoring, outcome measurement, evaluative reports and bid writing are needed to keep the charity functions and sustainable, so don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
Reece Dixon, Finance Manager, Young Lambeth Co-operative Expand After taking part in training with Leap Confronting Conflict, Reece started volunteering for the charity in 2012, supporting their financial administration. He excelled as a volunteer and was offered a position as their Finance and Operations Assistant. He gained qualifications and progressed to become their Finance Officer. Reece has now joined Young Lambeth Co-op as their Finance Manager. What motivated you to look for a job in the charity sector in the first place? I gained 6 months voluntary experience in the sector and was offered a 1 year apprenticeship on the back of it. I wanted to get involved in the sector to gain experience, develop skills and expertise in accounting and financial management but also I had the belief that it was this sector that addressed some key issues affecting young people. Finally, by becoming employed I was able to provide my son with some stability that I craved for him. Any specific reasons for not doing a degree? After getting kicked out of Richmond upon Thames College in 2009, formal education didn't feel like it was for me. It was solely my fault as to why I was excluded, however this contributed to the feeling that the education system just wasn’t for me. In addition, the costs of going to uni were a deterrent, as was the fact that I knew people who had been and still did not secure jobs afterwards. What was your first job and what did you bring to it / how did you get it? My first job was as the Finance and Office Assistant at Leap Confronting Conflict. I was interviewed for the role after I had volunteered for 6 months. My voluntary experience aided the opportunity and without it, I wouldn't have had the knowledge, skills and experience to take it on. I brought a 'freshness' to the organisation, a youthfulness and knowledge and experience of key social issues affecting young people. I was also able to work with people at all levels of the organisation. I bought a passion for improving the life chances of the disadvantaged young people and acting as a role model for them. Any particular milestones, successes etc along the way to where you are now? I have attained AAT Level 2 & 3 in the years I worked at Leap. Some key success were leading on the annual audit, leading on compliance reviews, migrating all payroll data to a new supplier, migration of data and implementation of a new I.T system, co-ordination of interviews and supporting the recruitment process. As a result of these successes and experiences I have started a new role as the Finance Manager of Young Lambeth Co-op. What would you say to someone hoping for a job in the sector who doesn’t have a degree, and what do you look for when recruiting, training, supporting staff? To someone hoping to find a job in the sector without a degree I would say not to let it deter them. I have managed to make great career progress without a degree and you can do the same. It demonstrates that a degree isn’t essential in an individual being able to do a particular role competently. It’s all down to the individual and the organisation. How much is the individual prepared to develop knowledge and ‘know-how’ in a particular field and how much support, resources and guidance is an organisation prepared to invest in someone. I would say that I've seen people with degrees lack practical experience and know-how and I’ve seen people without degrees excel. I believe that my journey with Leap is the epitome of what organisations can achieve in conjunction with young people if young people are given opportunities, meaningful roles and provided with the required resources to enable them to flourish in the workplace. Obviously, there’s an onus on the individual to do their part as well. Whilst I wouldn't try to convince anyone that university was the wrong road to take, (as I believe strongly in continuing personal/professional development), I would emphasise that gaining practical experience is as important if not more – particularly in the voluntary sector. From my experience, when recruiting staff I pay particular attention to the applicant’s skills and experience to date, their passion and how they communicate this. In terms of training and supporting staff I would hope to identify any key skills gaps that, if addressed, would increase someone’s knowledge and experience to enable them to develop, but also improve the organisation’s efficiency and impact.