Courses
Achieve More: An Introduction to Time Management
Most of us have experienced the frustration of reaching the end of the day without achieving half of the things that we set out to do. When that starts to impact upon your productivity it may be time to do something about it.
This workshop explores common time management principles and introduces some skills and techniques to improve self- management and greater control of your work load.
Crucial HR - Positive Management: Getting the best out of your staff
For any organisation, your staff can be your most expensive, but most valuable asset. Managing them in a positive way can be the most rewarding part of your job, even when challenges present themselves.
Ensuring that your staff are clear about their role and boundaries, treating them fairly and consistently and nipping any problems in the bud will make for harmonious working relationships and improved productivity.
This course will introduce HR strategies and approaches that mean the most challenging of situations can be handled positively.
Crucial HR - Recruiting the RIGHT person for your organisation
Recruiting staff can be a minefield. Selecting the wrong person can be an expensive mistake which could significantly damage your organisation, your team dynamic and leave everyone involved with a bad taste in the mouth. It’s also all too easy to unwittingly fall foul of employment law.
This one-day workshop will give you the skills, techniques and confidence to ensure that you employ the best person for the job, and make employment law work for you.
Dealing with Difficult People
Wouldn’t the world be much easier if everyone was like you? Sadly, they’re not. Sometimes it can seem as if customers, colleagues and our peers are conspiring to make our lives difficult.
Learning to understand ‘difficult people’ in all their guises, and practising the skills you can use to manage them can help you feel more confident in dealing with others.
This one-day workshop aims to help you understand what makes a difficult person, introduces classic difficult characters as well as some ideas to help manage them. The course also explores conflict, and basic approaches to defusing it.
Developing Managers: building confidence and leadership skills
Talented people get promoted. But being great at your job doesn’t always mean that you’ll be a good people manager. Sometimes people’s first experience of managing and leading others isn’t as positive as it could be, because they don’t have the skills and knowledge that underpin good management.
This one-day workshop explores the essential elements needed as you develop as a manager. It provides an opportunity to consider the leadership responsibilities and skills associated with the role, introduces the continuum of leadership styles and explores the skills necessary to work within and lead a team of people.
Our practical exercises provide a safe environment to practice different approaches, and rehearse the skills needed to build your confidence as a manager.
Emergency First Aid at Work
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 requires employers to provide suitable first-aid equipment, facilities and personnel to make sure that assistance is given to employees if they are injured or become ill at work.
First aiders in your organisation must have a valid certificate of competence. Emergency First Aid at Work training enables a first-aider to give emergency first aid to someone who is injured or becomes ill while at work.
Getting the best from others: Coaching for success
As the pace of change increases, businesses are recognising the need for their employees to learn and adapt quickly. Coupled with the need to find cost effective, just-in-time development, coaching has become a key management tool.
This course will introduce participants to the skills of coaching, provide a simple coaching framework and provide the opportunity to practice these skills.
Getting the most out of Delegation
Successful delegation can motivate staff, manage time and resources effectively and bring a creative new approach to a task. But, as a manager achieving the right balance between delegating to develop others and retaining operational control isn’t always easy.
This course will explore the reasons for, and the benefits and pitfalls of delegation, as well as identify potential barriers and give tips on remedial action if delegation is goes wrong. It emphasises planning, clear communication and balanced supervision.
The practically based, one-day course offers delegates an opportunity to develop a plan for delegation of a task and is suitable for supervisors, managers, project leaders and business owners.
Guide from the side: Improve your facilitation skills
Facilitation is the process of enabling groups of people to work together co-operatively and effectively. It’s particularly important where people with different backgrounds, abilities and interests need to work together. But it isn’t always as easy as it sounds - good facilitation is an art.
This workshop is ideal for anyone who runs training, project team meetings, seminars or any event where collective decision making is the goal.
By understanding the theories and skills behind good facilitation and group dynamics, you’ll become more confident in supporting all group members and challenging inappropriate behaviour.
Health and Safety Awareness through Risk Assessment
This course is to make delegates aware of basic health and safety issues.
Risk assessments are the lynchpin of health and safety management and this course will enable those responsible to make an informed decision. To many people there are obvious risks and common sense tells us what precautions to take however, other factors can impact or compound this risk.
So how do you recognise this situation and more importantly, what action should you be taking in order to discharge your duty of care to those you utilise in your organisation and others?
Introduction to equality and diversity for your business
The workshop encourages people to challenge attitudes towards diversity and equality in a non-confrontational manor.
It provides an opportunity to experience some disabilities and gives a broad coverage of legislation, the meaning of diversity, gender, ethnicity and disability.
Leading others through Organisational Change
Restructuring, reorganisation, mergers, downsizing, or expansion all lead to large scale change that needs to be carefully managed. But even seemingly minor changes in an organisation can lead to problems if they are not managed well.
Change causes uncertainty, stress and anxiety in those leading and in those subjected to it. Leading it effectively and continuing to motivate your teams is a challenge for business leaders and managers.
This short workshop aims to equip you with an understanding of common responses to change and what makes teams successful in times of change. It helps leaders develop the knowledge and skills to plan effective change and support individuals and teams effectively.
Level 1 Certificate in Food Hygiene Awareness (accredited by the Royal Society of Public Health)
The Level 1 Certificate in Food Hygiene Awareness is a basic qualification appropriate for anybody wishing to have an awareness of food hygiene.
It is ideal basic food safety training for those who perform "low risk" tasks such as clearing tables, maintaining stores, "meals on wheels" and other such similar duties.
The workshop covers the importance of food hygiene, food hazards, good hygiene practice and controls based upon an awareness of food safety management systems.
Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering (accredited by the Royal Society of Public Health)
The Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering is a qualification that covers the basic principles of food hygiene for caterers and other food handlers. It is valuable as a free-standing qualification or as an addition for people following other training programmes. This course is based on the Level 2 National Occupational Standards and conforms to the qualification template developed by RSPH and other Food Safety awarding bodies.
The course covers the importance of food hygiene, associated food hazards, good hygiene practice and controls based upon an awareness of food safety management systems. These topics are regarded by the Food Standards Agency as being important to understanding and maintaining good practice in the handling, processing and preparation of safe food.
Managers as Leaders: Inspiring and Motivating your Team
Being great at your job doesn’t automatically mean that you find it easy to lead, manage and inspire others.
This essential one-day workshop explores the essential differences between leadership and management and what it takes to be effective at both. It provides an opportunity to consider key leadership responsibilities and skills, introduces different approaches to leadership and explores the skills necessary to work within and lead a team.
Our practical exercises provide a safe environment to practice different approaches, and rehearse the skills needed to deal effectively with staff and customers.
Mastering Meeting Minutes
This half-day workshop will explore the different ‘uses’ of meeting notes and the legal status of meeting minutes. Activities will encourage participants to consider the way in which they take notes during meetings, and present some more usual ideas to help delegates record meeting contents accurately.
The course also explores formats for presenting written notes and individual writing style.
Maximise your chances of succeeding in Interviews
Being interviewed for a new job or role can be very daunting, especially since a lot of people don’t experience many interviews during their careers, or don’t get feedback from one’s they are not successful in.
But remember, an interview is just there to help make the match between applicants and the organisation. And although there is no way to anticipate every possible question, there are strategies to help you prepare, and interview skills can be practiced and polished.
This short workshop will introduce some strategies to help you shine in your next interview!
On time & on budget: An introduction to Planning and Managing Projects
The workshop aims to explore the theories and practical skills behind good project management based around the core principles of Prince II. It will define the life cycle of a project and the three dimensions of all projects. Using practical examples you will develop an understanding of Project Initiation Documents (or Project Plan), and effective monitoring and reporting procedures.
The day will also look at the people skills behind managing projects, including what kinds of people make a project team successful, and engaging stakeholders and partners.
Pitch-Perfect Bids: Improve your win rate when Tendering
The government is seeking to encourage small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to bid for, and win, public sector contracts. However, the tendering process, whether for work with statutory agencies or large commercial contracts, can be challenging for SMEs to negotiate. Many SMEs invest substantial time and money without success.
This one-day workshop delivered by experienced professional bid writer Paul Sharville is designed to help SMEs develop a methodical approach to producing winning tenders and proposals.
If you want to know the critical elements and approaches that will help you evaluate and understand tender opportunities, and then write and present compelling bids, this course is for you.
Planning, running and participating in effective meetings
Badly run meetings are an expensive waste of time and resources for any business, but focused, well-structured meetings can be worth every penny they cost.
The practical workshop explores the do’s and don’ts of planning and running successful meetings, from identifying a need to meet, to closing the meeting on time. Using practical exercises you will develop an understanding of meetings from the perspective of the chair, the note taker and the participants.
The day will also look at the people skills behind successful meetings, including skills to manage your own participation, as well as taking succinct and accurate notes and appropriate formats for presenting minutes.
Pressure and distress at work: Developing personal coping strategies
A recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey has found that stress is now the number one cause of long-term absence. Every year British businesses lose £26 billion in sickness absence and lost productivity. However, with greater awareness and support, businesses could save £8 billion of this per year.
Workforces are increasingly affected by job insecurity, increasing work pressures and rapid change. This course will help participants to understand more about sources of stress and the impact on their own wellbeing and productivity at work. Practical strategies will be presented and participants will be encouraged to develop their own action plan for coping with workplace stress.
Protecting your staff and your business: Fire Safety Awareness Training
85% of businesses that have a major fire, never trade again, and if the businesses has not taken the appropriate preventative action, insurance companies may refute any claim.
Ensuring ALL your staff understand their roles in preventing fires and their contribution to monitoring risks, will help ensure your business is less likely to be affected and make sure your company complies with its legal obligations.
This short workshop will equip staff with enough awareness and knowledge to play their role in protecting your organisation.
Speaking Confidently About Your Organisation
Some of us have had those nightmare moments when asked to speak in public, and most of us get apprehensive when asked to give a speech about our organisations. Even the most regular of presenters don’t always maximise their moment in the spot light.
But remember – communication only happens when the audience ‘receives’ your message. So speaking in public isn’t just about controlling your nerves, it’s just as important to make sure the audience ‘get’ what you’re saying.
Whether it’s networking events, team/staff meetings, AGM’s, ‘selling’ project ideas, recruitment talks or just participating in meetings, the purpose of giving a speech in public can vary, but the skills you need are similar.
Stop faffing! Problem solving & decision making skills for business
Problem solving is a crucial business skill. Having an effective method for identifying problems and potential problems and implementing appropriate solutions can save a business time, money and resources.
Participants on this course will learn the importance of analysing a problem and following a structured approach to problem resolution. The course offers a practical approach and encourages participants to apply the skills to their own work-based problems.
Strictly Confidential: Your data security responsibilities explained
Under the powers of the Data Protection Act, the penalty for serious breaches of the legislation includes fines of up to £500,000 and imprisonment. In 2010 the first fines were issued by the Information Commissioner of £130,000 to a county council and £60,000 to a social enterprise company who lost an encrypted laptop. Data loss is a crime and serious threat to business, and organisations are obliged to ensure that all staff who ‘process’ personal information of clients, staff and partners are aware of their legal responsibilities.
You don’t know who I am? Representing yourself confidently
Anyone in the workplace, whether employed or self-employed needs to present a confident and professional image. Whether it’s an interview, meeting a client (or prospective client) for the first time, working a stand at an exhibition or attending business networking events – first impressions count.
Confident personal presentation enables you to garner trust and build productive relationships, which can only enhance business effectiveness.
Participants on this course will learn techniques for managing perceptions, building confidence and networking.
