Completing the National Volunteer Standards to achieve the National Volunteer Certificate
Purpose
This guidance is designed to help you to gather the evidence to show how you meet the National Volunteer Standards and achieve the National Volunteer Certificate
You will need to complete your organisation’s induction which will provide some evidence towards the standards. You will also need to complete the e-Learning for Healthcare sessions that cover the core standards and which will provide knowledge and help with understanding in your volunteer role.
Additionally, you will need to complete a defined number of hours of volunteering to achieve the certificate. You will need to retain a record of these hours and log them with your manager.
It is anticipated that you should be able to meet all of the 6 core mandatory standards within a reasonable time frame, which will be dictated by the organisation you are a volunteer in. This timeframe will depend upon how often you volunteer and how much time you are able to spend on doing some of the work in your own time.
The standards
Each standard has a knowledge and understanding section and a performance section (the volunteer is able to) which tells you what you will be able to do as a volunteer when you have the required knowledge and understanding. Each session has a number and a title.
There are 6 core standards which should be completed by all volunteers and which form the National Volunteer Certificate. When you open them up, this is what they look like:
Each of the 6 core standards has one or more e-Learning for Healthcare sessions linked to it. When you open the standard the e-learning sessions are identified as hyperlinks and you can click on each one to complete it. You will need to complete all of the sessions linked to a standard and you will get a certificate for each session that you finish.
The e-Learning for Healthcare sessions will cover most of what you need to know, but you may need to do some additional learning to fully meet each standard. Your trust induction will also provide knowledge to help you complete the standards.Once completed you are free to explore other courses linked to that standard which may further enhance your knowledge and understanding.
Evidence
Evidence is what you need to show your manager or supervisor how you have met each of the standards. You can complete the standards in any order, but you will need to complete all of them.
Your manager or supervisor will tell you when they think you have met a standard.
Below are some examples of what you might use to show how you have met a particular standard.
You know and understand
- Completion of the trust induction: Attendance record; notes you may have taken;
- eLearning for Healthcare modules: certificates to show you have completed each module
- Your manager or supervisor will want to check your learning and how you can put it into your practice as a volunteer. They will ask to see records of your learning such as your certificates or notes and reflections.
You are able to
Evidence of application of the standards is achieved through volunteering practice, to demonstrate this you will need to:
- complete a defined number of volunteering hours, these will be set out by your manager
- keep a diary of activities you have carried out to evidence the hours you have completed
- You may find it helpful to complete reflections on how you have put what you learned into practice
- You can obtain testimonies from people who have seen you carry out your volunteering activities