Building skills in your NGO
• Interviewing & counselling • Handling information • Improving English • Organising training & managing activities
Do your staff and volunteers need to run Focus Group Discussions?
» Download our Key Information Sheet on Focus Group Discussions (KIS 2)
Do your staff and volunteers need Interviewing & Counselling skills?
» Download Interviewing & Counselling at the Grassroots.
The manual tells you how to organise a training course with your workers and work through the contents – with checklists to ensure good standards.
Do they need to have skills in surveys, sampling, information collection and interpretation of data?
» Download Information – Its collection and use throughout the Project Cycle
Could your employees benefit from learning techniques for all-round efficiency?
» Download How to Succeed in Your Work.
This helps employees at an individual level with topics such as ‘How to Assess Your Personality’ and ‘How to Help a New Colleague’.
Do you need to improve English language skills?
Most small NGOs need to present documents in English. If they are written for other local NGOs then it is perhaps less important if the English is not accurate – or so you think. But we at Networklearning get emails and documents that we sometimes cannot understand! Poor written English will handicap your work. Unchecked spelling means that you are inexperienced or careless. If you submit a project proposal to a big International NGO, and the English is unclear, you limit your chances. To get it right, what can you do?
- Always ‘spell check’ before printing your document or sending your email!
- When writing important emails we recommend you do this in a Word document, use the spell-checker, and only then transfer the text to the email document.
- The Type of English to use: decide, as an NGO, whether you will use US English or UK English, and set your choice as your spell checker’s default language.
- Grammar check: In MS Word you can also check and correct grammar. But this is not foolproof. Try to find someone with good English to do a final read of any important document. It is worth paying for this if it is a crucial document, such as your project proposal. (And always, always use the spell-checker!)
» As participants get good enough to write reports, they should refer to our online guide, Guidelines for Writing Reports.
Do you need to acquire skills in Organizing Training?
You can use the following Networklearning publications:
» How to Run a Workshop
» Teaching for Better Learning – A guide for teachers of primary health care staff
» How to Succeed with Distance Education
What about managing activities?
» See On Being In Charge.
This is written for people working in the Health Field but the principles of management are the same whatever your discipline. See Part II Chapter 2: Leading a (health) team/ 3: Organising (health) team activities/ 4: Controlling & assessing the work; Part IV Chapter 1: planning (health) activities; Chapter 2: Implementing (health) activities; Chapter 3: Evaluating (health) activities
