In 2008, voluntaryskills.com continued to grow establishing itself as the leading website for Third Sector skills and training in the North of England.

• In the first quarter of 2008, the voluntaryskills.com team published two important pieces of research. These were the North East Third Sector Skills Survey 2007-2008 and North East Third Sector ICT Survey 2008. The latter, which was commissioned by VONNE, was described by the 2008 ICT Hub External Evaluation as a “great piece of work”. Both reports are available to download from www.voluntaryskills.com/research
• In May, voluntaryskills.com won the prestigious award for ‘Best Voluntary Sector Website’ at the North East Digital Awards 07/08 (see www.pne.org/news/?i=19)
• In June, annual membership fees for training providers and paid advertising services including Button Adverts and Featured News articles were introduced to help support the costs of running the website and to reduce reliance on grants and funding (see www.voluntaryskills.com/membership)
• Coverage of the website was first extended into Cumbria in January and then the whole of the North West region in September 2008 (www.pne.org/news/?i=23)
• Paul Lancaster, voluntaryskills.com Project Manager was one of five people nominated for the Community Foundation / Ward Hadaway ‘Voluntary Sector Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008’ (see www.pne.org/news/?i=27)

Find out more about voluntaryskills.com