Partner Article

SkillsBridge celebrates birthday by signing up 50th volunteer

A project that matches up North East business experts with the voluntary and community sector (VCS), has celebrated its first birthday by signing up its 50th expert volunteer. Since its launch in June 2011, SkillsBridge has offered practical and valuable support to over 100 VCS organisations, thanks to the help of a wide range of businesses, including Sage UK, Greggs and the Benfield Motor Group.

SkillsBridge is a major programme designed to support the North East’s voluntary and community sector (VCS). The SkillsBridge team matches up experts from the private and public sectors with VCS organisations, to deliver sustainable and practical business solutions, at a time when other avenues of support and funding are difficult to come by.

Andy Holgate, managing director of Holgate HR, has signed up to SkillsBridge to offer human resources expertise. SkillsBridge has already linked Holgate HR with two organisations from its database of VCS organisations where they are utilising the skills available within the business to the best use.

This milestone for SkillsBridge comes as National Volunteers’ week begins, running this year from the 1 – 7 June, and celebrating the contribution that millions of volunteers make every year to thousands of different organisations across the UK. There are over 20 million people in the UK who volunteer their time, supplying organisations with over 100 million hours of service each year.

Andy Holgate comments: “It’s a challenging business environment for everyone at the moment, but I am very conscious of how much the voluntary and community sector is feeling the pinch. When I heard about SkillsBridge and what the project had set out to achieve, I was keen to get involved and offer what help that we could. I think it’s fantastic that SkillsBridge has already attracted 50 volunteers – it demonstrates the value that the local business community attaches to the vibrant and creative VCS organisations we have here in the North East. “

Andrew White, chief executive of SkillsBridge said: “Since day one, businesses in the North East have embraced SkillsBridge, and have really got behind our project. I am delighted that we have effectively signed up a new volunteer each week that we have been operating, which I think demonstrates some of the best characteristics of the North East business community. I know that Andy Holgate will be a great addition to our team of volunteers and I am very grateful to him and our other volunteers for their fantastic support for SkillsBridge. I look forward to working with all of them as we build on the successes of our first year.”

SkillsBridge is enabling voluntary and community groups across the region to access specialist support that would otherwise be unavailable. Businesses that would like to find out more about how to get involved with SkillsBridge should contact Chris Orrick on 0191 2755059 or chris@skills-bridge.org.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by SkillsBridge .