Commmunity IT Academy

CITA is luanching a small scale pilot and hope to develop a larger scale service to the VCS, depending on our findings, that aims to train people, especially volunteers, to become more capable of managing the IT systems within a voluntary sector organisation.

We are especially interested in groups that are currently using volunteers to help support their IT but will also work with employees (full and part time).

We have been flooded with requests but, numbers are strictly limited and as a result of limited funding we have had to cut the numbers further, although we hope to attract additional funding in the near future. We are also experiencing a slight delay whilst we await centre accrditation for the ITQ, a flexible NVQ in IT.

This pilot runs for 6 months and allows for up to 20 hours of 1:1 on site mentoring aimed at either helping to improve IT management within a group and/or helping the IT manager towards an IT qualification. The fundamental aim of the project is to improve the IT within a voluntary group and help an individual gain IT experience and qualification, thus enhancing career prospects. At this stage we would prefer to limit groups to one person at a time.

It means that a considerable time commitment is required from both the chosen group (releasing the member of staff and providing a suitable venue for the learning)and the individual in terms of time (both to study and be mentored). The provision is flexible and is very dependent on previous experience, knowledge and qualifications and so some time will be spent assessing the needs of both the group and the individual selected.

The pilot is open to any voluntary group and is not geographically limited, we can cover the entire region from Teesside to Berwick! Turnover is not a limiting factor but we would prefer to help groups that we have not engaged with before and/or are in greatest need of improving their IT provision.

As this is a pilot we will only be selecting those people who we feel will provide us with the best case evidence to develop the project further and those we feel will complete the proposed programme. If we are successful in attracting further funding or launch the project in full we would be happy for any of the unsuccessful groups to re-apply.

If you are interested please contact us via the link above. If selected CITA will contact you during October.

Please let us know if we can hold your records and offer you a place on an extended project we are hoping to launch in early 2010.