STEP Online Trustee Course

Why take this course?

The Informed Trustee equips current and aspiring trustees with the knowledge needed to be successful charity board members. Providing full coverage of the legal, regulatory and financial requirements on charities across the UK, this course will prepare you to make a powerful contribution at the board table.

Created to encourage a new generation to charity trusteeship and refresh the skills of existing trustees, the programme's editor in chief is Julie Hutchison TEP; a charities specialist at Aberdeen Standard Capital. The course content has been written by a team of 17 charity experts from leading UK law and accounting firms and is supported by the Charity Finance Group. Effective charity boards comprise trustees with a wide variety of skills, experience and perspectives.

 

 

Course intended learning outcomes 

On successful completion of this course you will be able to:

  • Outline charity laws and regulations in the jurisdiction of the UK relevant to you (being Scotland, Northern Ireland, or England and Wales.)
  • Identify the responsibilities of a charity trustee from within a range of realistic scenarios.
  • Explain charity tax and accounting concepts and information that is typically prepared and scrutinised by a board.
  • Discuss different regulatory, legal and finance information in a charity context.
  • Recognise relevant risk management and regulatory issues to consider in a range of realistic scenarios.


 
 

Entry advice

This course is open entry and is suitable for both new trustees and experienced charity trustees wanting to update their knowledge.

How will I learn?

The course is delivered online and can be accessed via your desktop, tablet or mobile phone. The course includes real life scenarios and case studies and, by asking you to reflect on these situations, encourages you to apply the knowledge you have gained in a practical way.

Course outline

The course covers the following units: 

  • Introduction to The Informed Trustee 
  • Legal form of charity
  • Roles and responsibilities
  • Membership matters
  • Communications and data
  • Operations
  • Fundraising
  • Accounts
  • Financial management and tax
  • Risk management and sustainability
  • Personal development pathway for charity trustees

Final assessment

To achieve a course completion certificate candidates are required to sit a multiple choice test of 40 questions covering the course material within 12 months of starting the course.

Group enrolment 

If you are from an organisation who would like to purchase multiple licences for The Informed Trustee, please contact Charity Trustee Training by email at the email address below. 

Further enquiries 

If you have any queries regarding The Informed Trustee, please email ctt@step.org. This email address is monitored during normal business working hours, Monday to Friday with the exception of UK Bank Holidays.

Minimum Browser Requirements

  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Edge 15, 16
  • Firefox 55, 56
  • Chrome (desktop) 60, 61
  • Safari (desktop) 10.1, 11
  • Safari (mobile) 10.3, 11
  • Chrome (mobile) 60, 61