Voluntary sector organisations are taking on more people with transferable skills for jobs in fundraising, IT and marketing because they're hard to fill roles.

That's the summary of Natasha Waas, director of recrutiment agency Charity People, commenting on a report published by the Workforce Hub. The Voluntary Sector Skills Survey 2007 found that just under one quarter of employers cited few or no applicants as the reason behind their hard to fill vacancies.

The report also found that almost three out of 10 voluntary sector organisations employ staff who are not sufficiently skilled to carry out their roles.

“This is good news for people looking to get in to the sector because organisations are now looking at candidates who have potential and are eager to prove themselves in the role,” said Waas. “It means we're skilling up the sector.”

A second report published, again by the Workforce Hub, found that the number of people working in the voluntary sector has increased by more than a quarter over the last decade. Waas sees this growth petering off as more organisations begin to pool their resources. She says this is not a bad thing for ethical job seekers because it means the sector will work with the skills shortage and improve retention. 

Indeed, the survey, The UK Voluntary Sector Workforce Almanac 2007, found that that a third of staff retention problems were caused by a lack of career progression and a third by low salary levels.

Leanne Page, project manager at the Fundraising Academy, says the voluntary sector needs to be more creative and recruit from a wider pool of candidates, in addition to investing more in their career and professional development.

She said: “The Fundraising Academy, launched earlier this year, focuses around providing a new route into the sector for people wanting to become fundraisers.

“Our training is delivered during the evenings, allowing people to hold down a full-time job whilst retraining.  This year saw a high number of candidates graduating from the course with commercial and public sector experience - people who otherwise might not be attracted to the sector if they had had to give up their job.”

The Voluntary Sector Skills Survey found that nearly one-fifth of organisations expect recruitment of fundraisers to become more difficult over the next three years.

• Charity People
  www.charitypeople.co.uk
• The UK Workforce Hub
  www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk
• The Fundraising Academy
  www.fundraisingacademy.com