THE LACK of formal management training for those work voluntary/community sector is essentially a problem of resources. Many non profit making organisations are simply too small or too strapped for cash to spend money on anything other than their core activities, and while staff may have received the professional training necessary to do their jobs efficiently, there is nothing left over to fund wider training programmes.

The certificate in voluntary sector management is a part time course spread over one academic year. Students attend DCU for one full day each week and on Saturday mornings during the year. The university received over 60 applications for its first student intake last September.

The age profile of the group is from early 30s to early 50s and there are 21 students on the course from a wide variety of community groups and organisations such as the National Council for the Blind, the Irish Wheelchair Association and the National Youth Council.

The director of the course is Dr Treasa Hayes, a lecturer in management and business studies at DCU who holds a PhD in management in the voluntary sector from the London School of Economics.

"This is the first course of its type at university level and the initiative came from the voluntary sector which recognised that it had needs which were not being fulfilled by existing ad hoc training mechanisms," she says.

"The Combat Poverty Agency pulled the whole thing together from the voluntary sector's side, and it is also providing part of the funding, and we were approached to be the programme host on the academic side. The broad aim of the certificate is to provide a conceptual and practical framework for the development of managers working in voluntary/community organisations and by so doing to greatly improve the managerial capacity within this sector," she says.

The course is split into two modules which run from September to December and from February to May respectively. Within each module there are six separate subjects covering the whole range of management disciplines from organisational behaviour and accounting/financial management to human resource management and strategic planning.

There are also professional development courses to round off each module which cover topics such as communication and presentation, negotiating, recruitment, writing skills and stress management.

"I decided to do the course primarily to get a set of skills which my training in social studies had not given me," says Sean O'Doherty who has been working with St Michael's House in Dublin for the past four years.

"I manage a community based residence where I have a staff of five people and six residents to look after and that demands a high level of people skills as well as a knowledge of human resource management and administration expertise.

"I felt I needed to pick up skills in these areas to complement my professional training and I saw it as something positive in terms of my job now and for my CV in the future. I have to say that I am finding the course very interesting and enjoyable but very difficult to manage logistically because I work shifts and I have young family. So it's a constant juggle between all the different elements.

"The compensation is that I feel I'm gaining a lot and I'm thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to meet people from other sectors. When you work in the mental handicap area you tend to end up mixing with people from within this field all the time and it is very enriching to be opened up to the experiences, methods and attitudes of those in other types of voluntary or community work," O'Doherty says.

Marie Lynch is an occupational therapist working with the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) to develop a national project for supported work experience.

"I decided to go on the course because I felt it would give me skills pertinent to the voluntary sector," she says. "There are plenty of management courses available and there are courses for people in the voluntary sector, but not the two together and in this way.

"I think the fact that the course is geared towards the voluntary sector has given me the opportunity to put the IWA and my work in context and to consider how we operate compared with other organisations.

Our discussions are very lively and informative and I have gained a lot from the various assignments we've done because they are work related and this gives you the opportunity to think in a systematic manner about work but outside work hours.

"I think the course has made me more aware of the standards of practice within the sector and it has certainly brought me into contact with subject areas that I wouldn't have gone near only for the course but which I think will be of benefit to me in the long term," she says.