Two more national hubs of expertise have received official approval from the Home Office.

The Workforce Hub, which will build on the work of the former Voluntary Sector National Training Organisation, will work to develop the skills and good employment practice of the voluntary and community sector.

In addition it is to set the standards for the sector and is currently developing national Occupation Standards for Trustees and Management Committee members and a Qualifications Strategy. It is also producing a booklet that will encourage newcomers to work in the sector, and is working with infrastructure organisations to develop skills and promote good employment practice.

Mark Freeman, Workforce Development Manager for COVER (The Community and Voluntary Forum Eastern Region) said: “The Workforce Hub’s ability to link the work being carried out regionally and locally will help to spread good practice, and enable us to gather much needed intelligence to highlight the sector’s needs and quantify its impact on the economy and the communities in which it works.”

The second is the Performance Hub - a partnership of six voluntary infrastructure organisations that aims to raise performance improvement skills of sector organisations. Alongside providing opportunities for organisations to learn and share knowledge, it will also work towards influencing the policies and practices of funders, regulators and policy makers in order to create an environment which is conducive to performance improvement amongst other things.

Colin Nee, chief executive of CES, a lead partner of the Performance Hub, said: “Performance improvement involves voluntary and community organisations achieving more for their beneficiaries or the issues on which they campaign. We are looking forward to working in this exciting new partnership to help the sector make more of a difference.”

For more information on the Workforce Hub, visit www.voluntarysectorskills.org.uk, and for details on the performance improvement hub visit, www.performance-improvement.org.uk