In collaboration with the Telematics Trust and eLearning Specialists, Talent2, Big Brothers Big Sisters has developed its own on line training program for volunteer mentors.

Prospective volunteers are now offered an eLearning Training Program accessed via the internet plus one face-to-face training session of about 4 hours. eLearning has halved the amount of staff time used in training volunteers by 50%.

The eLearning project aims to improve the quality of training delivered to prospective mentors, many of whom will be providing one-to-one friendship to young people throughout Melbourne.

To our knowledge, this project is the first of its kind in Australia, said BBBS Executive Officer, Paul Mathewson.

We have almost 200 young people waiting to be matched but do not have the volunteers or the staffing resources to offer them a Big Brother or Big Sister.

There is huge potential for this initiative to make a real difference to the community organisations, said Talent2's Instructional and Creative Director, Jason Willis.

Volunteer training is a critical part of the BBBS' mentoring program as it ensures that the prospective volunteers have the necessary preparation to support a young person in need of one-to-one support. More than 50 volunteers have participated in the blended training program of eLearning and face-to-face training.

This eLearning project will aim to improve training quality, knowledge retention for participants and reduce the amount of staff time required to deliver the training, said Jason.

In addition to the eLearning initiative, Jason has had direct involvement with the BBBS where he was a volunteer Big Brothers in Sydney.

You can have a look at a sample of the elearning Volunteer Training Program by clicking onto to the eLearning Demonstration Course.