Delivering unrivalled support to children and young people made The NSPCC an easy choice for QA’s charity partner for 2017. As a company we’ve walked, jumped, cycled, dressed-up and even got muddy to raise funds for the charity which operates in the UK and the Channel Islands. But being QA, we are never happy “just doing our bit”- there is always that part of us which makes us want to go above and beyond.
When The NSPCC came to us with a dilemma which centred on skills and training of their trainers we seized the opportunity to help.
But how?
The answer came in the shape of The Training Foundation, QA’s newly acquired division which provides high quality training for trainers, subject matter experts and learning and development professionals. Within TTF, QA offer a framework of 22 programmes, including aspects of design and delivery which includes blended learning, online webinars and coaching skills.
Understanding the difference we can make
For Adrian Stokes, Director, TTF speaking to The NSPCC to establish what they were struggling with was crucial. The NSPCC train third party providers who are in charge of providing care and support to children, including Childline. They also have a responsibility to volunteers to provide them with the right skills to help them help children in need, with confidence – they were struggling. Adrian and his team quickly hatched a plan which would deliver real value to The NSPCC and Childline.
QA have made a pledge to train the trainers who train their call handlers (a bit of a mouthful!). They know their stuff - it’s how we can help them deliver this more effectively that’s our sweet spot.
We’ll initially be training 48 people – and we will be volunteering 8 of our talented trainers to the cause for 2 days each to deliver a foundation delivery training course - Really training them on how to best deliver their message, and getting to the bottom of how they best advise their called on dealing with difficult situations and ensuring they can deliver their support to children in the best way they can.
We’re going to provide our pledge free of charge to the NSPCC and our trainers will be volunteering their time to running these courses up and down the country - from Aberdeen to London. Our total investment will equate to around £33,500 – something we should be really proud about.
We are the very first corporate partner to offer anything like this directly to NSPCC - and we are sure that this is going to make a real, tangible difference to them.
We spoke to Liane Smith, Head of Volunteering, NSPCC, who said:
“We are very grateful for all the work QA have done for us, but this development is radical. The donation from QA, the first of its kind from any company is going to transform young people’s lives. QA’s agreement to train so many Childline staff through volunteering days and more means that we can help so many more children more effectively. We all thoroughly appreciate the fantastic support from QA.”
Learn more about the counsellors we'll be helping here.