Skills Building

Building Skills for a Stronger Sector

The Wheel is committed to ensuring that nonprofit workers, both paid and unpaid, and the organisations they work in, have the skills they need to deliver their varied and important missions across Irish society.   

We do this through various means, including an extensive training and events calendar every year, working with partners to provide specially designed accredited programmes, developing and delivering The Leadership Academy, funding peer-led training networks through our Training Links scheme, taking part in skills-building European partnerships, researching the skills and training needs of the sector and advocating on behalf of the nonprofit workforce with key stakeholders.  
   
We work to ensure that nonprofit organisations, of all types, and those that work for them, are well served by the state's skills development infrastructure.    

In order to inform this work, we have recently commissioned  and collaborated in important research reports to provide evidence on training and skills-building in the nonprofit workforce in Ireland. We have also participated in significant skills-building initiatives and programmes for the Irish nonprofit sector, as detailed below.

Page Contents:

1. Training Links
2. The Leadership Academy
3. National Skills Council
4. EU Projects
5. Collaborations
6. Research
7. Meet the Team

1. Training Links

Training Links funds networks of social economy organisations to undertake training together.  The programme is uniquely placed to meet the training requirements of our sector's workforce.  

Since 2005 The Wheel’s Training Links programme has supported the training and development needs of more than 50,000 social economy workers across Ireland. This includes volunteers and employees across many disciplines from charities, community and voluntary organisations and social enterprises.  

For a deeper dive into Training Links visit: www.wheel.ie/training-links-programme 

Get in touch by emailing: traininglinks2025@wheel.ie. 

2. The Leadership Academy

Supporting Nonprofit Leaders

The Leadership Academy is where leaders from Irish charities, community organisations and social enterprises come together to learn from and inspire each other. Start by taking the self-assessment to reflect on your leadership skills or browse our Leadership Library to discover a wealth of relevant resources from accredited training to the latest podcasts and articles.

Visit the Leadership Academy website to find out more: https://www.leadersacademy.ie/ 

If you would like to chat to us about oppotunities or areas on interest in relation to Leadership, please get in touch with Sharon at sharon@wheel.ie. 

3. National Skills Council

The National Skills Council is the national advisory body on skills policy, made up of representatives of social partners, industry and other stakeholders. The Wheel is represented on the Council by Mairead O’Connor, who currently holds the Community and Voluntary Pillar seat on the Council.  

Read the National Skills Council’s first publication – Skills Matter - published in July 2025.  

4. EU Projects

The Wheel participates in and delivers a number of European programmes and projects that aim to activate involvement in Europe among Irish community, voluntary and charitable organisations and social enterprises, and improve our offerings to members. The projects below were designed specifically to improve the knowledge, skills and abilities of the sector in Ireland and across the EU.

Some of the EU projects we are involved in are:

• baSE
• RISE
• SCOPE
• F4S3 - Foundations 4 Sector 3
• RevitaLESE

baSE

The Erasmus+ baSE project (Blueprint for Advanced Skills & Trainings in the Social Economy) aims at upskilling and reskilling workers of the social economy sector.   

The baSE partnership developed an online learning platform with 10 courses designed to upskill workers in the sector in areas related to the digital, the green and the inclusive transitions. The platform and all courses are currently being finalised and will launch officially in 2026.   

The partnership also worked on: 

1. Reports on social economy skills gaps defining a long-term and sustainable strategy 
2. A competency framework for the social economy
3. Policy recommendations to strengthen social economy VET training provision 
4. A social economy magazine.

You can find all these resources on the project’s website. 

To know more about baSE or if you wish to be involved in focus groups, activities and trainings linked to this project, please contact Perrine – perrine@wheel.ie.

RISE

The Erasmus+ RISE (Engaged Research in the Social Economy) project will build the skills of social economy organisations to partner in projects with research institutes.  

This will enable more engaged research, a practice that creates more socially impactful projects through collaboration between researchers and communities. Social economy organisations can be the key to accessing communities and practitioner expertise and achieving real change, but they can lack the capacity necessary to navigate the research landscape. 

RISE will address this need by creating: 

1. An innovative, validated & accessible Engaged Research course for organisations
2. A publication outlining the project’s methodology, results, and sustainability plans
3. Awareness raising of the value of engaged research.

For more information on RISE and the course on engaged research for social economy organisations, please contact Perrine – perrine@wheel.ie.

SCOPE

The purpose of the SCOPE programme is to provide free, sector specific eLearning modules to social economy workers and volunteers. Learners can work at their own pace and their learning will be validated using digital badges.  

eLearning modules include: 

1. Governance Basics
2. Financial Basics
3. Fundraising Basics
4. Communications Basics
5. Risk Management Basics. 

To learn more about F4S3 visit our project website here - https://scope-skills.eu/en-ie/.  

Get in touch by emailing CathyAnne: cathyanne@wheel.ie.

TRY SCOPE HERE

F4S3

The purpose of the Foundations 4 sector 3 programme is to support new entrants into the sector through a series of training workshops and webinars.  

The F4S3 programme offers two training modules using a blended learning approach. Module 1 focuses on sector-specific knowledge and will consist of two days face-to-face training augmented by two online training sessions utilising webinars and online communication platforms. Module 2 focuses on personal and professional development. Similarly, it will have two face-to-face training days augmented by two online training sessions. Learning will be validated using digital badges.   

To learn more about F4S3 visit our project website here - https://www.f4s3.eu/.  

Get in touch by emailing CathyAnne: cathyanne@wheel.ie.

RevitaLESE

The purpose of the RevitaLESE programme is to assist and engage with long established social economy organisations who wish to revitalise their social mission, business model and activities.  

The RevitaLESE partnership has created a wealth of resources for the European social economy sector including blogs, case studies, podcasts, comprehensive training materials for LESE organisations and an Impact, Validation and Sustainability Report examining the success of the programme.  

To learn more about RevitaLESE visit our project website here - https://revitalese.eu/.  

Get in touch by emailing CathyAnne on cathyanne@wheel.ie.  

5. Collaborations and Projects

6. Research

Pay and Benefits in the Community and Voluntary Sector 2024  

In December 2024, supported by Community Foundation Ireland, we launched the sixth edition of the Pay and Benefits in the Community & Voluntary Sector report, our survey on community, voluntary and charity sector pay in Ireland.   

This report is published at a time of significant change and challenge for the Irish sector. Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive overview of pay and benefits, while also examining key HR metrics such as absence and turnover rates, investment in training, and more. In addition, the report explores the internal priorities of HR departments to highlight the common challenges faced by organisations across the community and voluntary sector.

The research was conducted on behalf of The Wheel by NfPResearch, with participation from 592 organisations, employing over 10,800 staff and engaging 34,272 volunteers. The research was funded by Community Foundation Ireland. 

You can download the report in full here.  

You can find the report launch recording here.

Adult Literacy for Life 

The Wheel is proud to support the Adult Literacy for Life 10 Year Strategy. Many people in Ireland have unmet literacy, numeracy and digital literacy needs. One in six Irish adults has an unmet literacy need. This means that many Irish people struggle to fill in forms, help kids with homework, understand health information or access community services. Literacy, numeracy and digital literacy skills are also important foundations for active citizenship and community wellbeing.  

The Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Strategy has ambitious targets to tackle these issues. The ALL Office has brought together a wide-ranging coalition of stakeholders from government, civil society, education, business and the community to work together to build awareness and support the strategy.  

Find out more about our recent collaboration with the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) to support literacy awareness in the community and voluntary sector. 

Consultation Report on The Support Needs of the Nonprofit Sector; Sheila Cahill Consulting, 2021

This significant report for the nonprofit sector in Ireland, carried out on behalf of Carmichael and The Wheel by Sheila Cahill Consulting, and co-funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development, contains the results of new and extensive qualitative research into the training and support needs of the sector.  

The report highlights the range and scale of challenges facing nonprofit organisations in Ireland today, from small community groups to larger national bodies and everything in between. The study looks at the supports available currently to these organisations, locally, regionally and nationally, while also identifying how supports could best be developed in order to help organisations meet the challenges they face.  The report also recognises the range of positive new strategies and initiatives that have been developed by the Department of Rural and Community Development, which point the way towards delivering the support needs identified in the research. 

(There is significant complementarity between this research and the 2020 report on Appraisal of Upskilling Employees in the Non-Profit Sector, authored by Indecon on behalf of The Wheel. That report (which can be read below) quantified for the first time the levels of training and upskilling undertaken by people in the nonprofit sector – paid and unpaid.)

The report’s author engaged with 19 focus groups around the country, which included representatives from voluntary organisations, community groups, charities and social enterprises. The report also contains the results of a wide-ranging consultation which involved organisations representing the full diversity of our sector as well as policy-makers, regulators and funders.   

To address the main challenges facing the sector today, the report identifies a wide-ranging support agenda for the sector which encompasses training and supports tailored to recognise the diversity of organisations in the Irish nonprofit sector and delivered by those with a strong understanding of the sector.  

Carmichael and The Wheel hope that this report will provide important information to any organisation which seeks to support nonprofit organisations and the work they do to promote the public good in communities all over Ireland.  We are appreciative of the support of the Department of Rural and Community Development in this work. 

If you would like to find out more about this area of our work, please drop Mairead O’Connor, our Skills Development Senior Manager, an email: mairead@wheel.ie.   

Read the full report

Investment Appraisal of Upskilling Employees in the Nonprofit Sector; 2020, Indecon International Research Economists

This landmark study, carried out by Indecon on behalf of The Wheel, quantifies for the first time the levels of training and upskilling undertaken by people in the nonprofit sector – paid and unpaid. The authors also produced a rigorous cost benefit analysis of investment in upskilling amongst these workers. With input from stakeholders right across the nonprofit sector, including charities, community development organisations, voluntary services providers, social enterprises and community groups, this study makes a compelling case for the need to invest in skills development in the sector. 

In carrying out their study, Indecon undertook new primary research amongst a representative cross-section of CEOs, staff and volunteers of nonprofit organisations, receiving nearly 700 survey responses in all. The high level of engagement with the research across the sector demonstrates the awareness amongst organisations of value of workforce skills development in meeting communities’ needs.  

The report identifies areas where investment is needed to address current and emerging skills gaps in the Irish nonprofit sector. It also identifies areas where more training and investment is required because of anticipated growth in the sector, including IT, marketing and communications, project management and human resource management.  

The report indicates that investment in training in the nonprofit workforce in Ireland is low, in comparison with other sectors in the Irish workforce and with comparable nonprofit workforces in other countries. Specifically, it identifies barriers that impede the necessary investment, such as the cost of training and lack of time available to engage with training amongst workers, and points the way towards the solutions needed in this regard. 

The research also includes a cost benefit analysis which demonstrates a clear net benefit to investing in nonprofit workforce development. On average, for every €1 invested, there will be a return of €2.86, in terms of increased quality and impact – demonstrating clearly the positive return that would follow from increased investment in training in the non-profit sector, including increased innovation in work practices, productivity benefits and lower operating costs.  

The Wheel would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in funding this research.  

If you would like to find out more about this area of our work, please drop Mairead O’Connor, our Skills Development Senior Manager, an email: mairead@wheel.ie.  

Read the Indecon report

7. Meet the Team