About the Volunteer Learning programme

Welcome to the Volunteering Learning Programme, and the start of your learning journey with us.  This programme is freely available to all volunteers and includes e-learning resources for volunteers that have been designed by volunteers.  The programme supports your completion of the National Volunteer Certificate (NVC) and also links to wider learning via the National Learning Hub for Volunteering.

What is the National Volunteer Certificate and why should I complete it?

We encourage all volunteers to start their learning journey by undertaking the National Volunteer Certificate which underpins the induction you will do as a volunteer.

The aim of the National Volunteer Certificate is to ensure that all volunteers in health and social care, have the same basic learning when you start in your role.   Completion of induction training supports the process for ensuring that you are safe in the volunteering environment.

The National Volunteer Certificate (NVC) will demonstrate that you have undertaken high-quality training in theory and carried out a period of practice to volunteer safely in health and social care.

The NVC will be awarded when you have achieved the six core standards required by completing a set of core learning sessions during induction and gained 60 hours of volunteering experience.

How do I achieve the National Volunteer Certificate?

There are two steps to achieving the National Volunteer Certificate

Firstly, you need to complete e-learning to meet the six core standards of the National Volunteer Certificate.

The six core standards include content that all volunteers are encouraged to achieve as you start your volunteer journey

The standards are:

• Your role and responsibility
• Communication
• Respect for Everyone (Equality Diversity and Inclusion)
• Safeguarding (Adults and Children)
• Mental Health, Dementia and Learning Disability
• Health and Safety

The standards are achieved through successful completion of 11 e-learning sessions that are detailed below.   Each is a short e-learning session with a multiple choice test at the end.

• Your Role and Responsibilities
• Communication Skills
• Data Security Awareness
• Conflict Resolution
• Equality, Diversity and Human Rights
• Safeguarding Adults
• Safeguarding Children
• Preventing Radicalisation
• Mental Health Awareness
• Health and Safety
• Fire Safety

The second step you need to take is to complete 60 hours of volunteering, signed off by your Volunteer Manager.

Completion of the standards through the e-learning sessions and the 60 hours of volunteering will enable you to achieve the National Volunteer Certificate.

Successful volunteers will receive a certificate of completion and a badge awarded by Health Education England.

The National Volunteer Certificate was developed from learning provided in the e-Learning for Healthcare Statutory and Mandatory training and has been mapped to the Core Skills Training Framework (v1.6 UK).

Thinking about a Career in Care?

If you are thinking about a career in healthcare, you will be interested to know that the National Volunteer Standards have been mapped to the outcomes of the National Care Certificate which is used in the preparation of support workers in health and care settings. They will provide some underpinning knowledge for this should you, in your role as a volunteer, choose to move into health or care-based employment.

Additional learning for volunteers in specific roles

Additional learning for volunteers in specific roles

There are also a small number of optional modules which have been developed to support volunteers in specific roles. These do not need to be completed to achieve the National Volunteer Certificate, but your organisations may ask you to complete them to support you in your roles.

• Child Sexual Exploitation (optional)
• Fluids and Nutrition (optional)
• Basic Life Support (optional)
• Moving and Assisting (optional)

Other resources which you may be interested in:

Completing the NVC is not the end of the story – there are other resources available via the National Learning Hub for Volunteering including resources from the Open University, Open Learn, Future Learn, Macmillan and ourselves here at e-Learning for Healthcare.

This programme is in partnership with...

• Age UK
• Advocacy Focus
• Community CVS (Community & Voluntary Services
• Blackburn with Darwen Council
• Blackburn with Darwen Healthwatch
• Burnley, Pendle & Rossendale CVS (Community & Voluntary Services)
• East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
• Families, Health and Wellbeing Consortium
• Helpforce
• Hyndburn & Ribble CVS (Community & Voluntary Services
• Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Lancashire Volunteer Partnership
• Manchester Foundation Trust
• St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• The Royal Marsden
• University Hospitals Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust

How to access

The Volunteer Learning content is free to access using an email address.  Registration is required for this to enable users to track their learning, provide feedback on sessions, and retain certificates of completion.

If you already have an account with e-LfH, then you can enrol on to the Volunteer Learning content by logging in to the e-LfH Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My e-Learning section.

If you are new to e-LfH, you can register through the Volunteer Learning or through the National Learning Hub for Volunteering registration page.

Access from other Learning Management Systems

The National Volunteer Certificate e-learning sessions are supported by the AICC communication standard. This allows for remote Learning Management Systems (LMS) to launch the sessions from the e-LfH content server as if they were loaded locally. Enrolment and tracking of usage is retained at the organisation’s LMS. If your local LMS supports AICC, please contact our support desk and we will provide you with the relevant links and instructions to set up courses.