Dear C.Kelly (Sorry I can't address you more informally)
I think that your answer below might need to be taken in context to
the country that you are based in - I'm not sure which that is? Over
here in the UK the issue is actually covered under Health & Safety at
Work legislation, which identifies that a company, organisation, or
charitable trust IS responsible for ensuring that their volunteers
are adequately trained for the job that they are doing and that
protection in the case of working in a potentially dangerous
environment is also taken into account. The HSE produced a booklet on
this issue last year (Cost £12).
> Any effort to "professionalize" volunteers, e.g., require training or rate
> competencies, could present a serious constraint to PVOs which rely on
> volunteers to run operations, and would probably be strongly resisted.
> There is, however, some basic agreement on competencies when using
> volunteers: almost any volunteer can end up running a refugee camp, while
> only volunteer doctors end up doing surgery (I hope).
>
Best wishes
Paul
Paul Carney
Senior Lecturer
School of Health & Social Science
Coventry University
Priory St
Coventry England CV1 5FB
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