Workforce Development
Training Topics
So you want to work with young people? - Training Volunteers
Managing Challenging Behaviour
Developing Presentation Skills
This is section is about developing core youth work skills, staff development and supporting volunteers.
Train the Trainer – Training Senior Members & Young Volunteers
This training day is delivered in a ‘train the trainer’ style, enabling those working in voluntary, statutory and private youth services to be able to deliver Senior Member training to young volunteers in their organisation.
The day comes complete with a resource pack of training activities to enable young people to develop the youth work skills necessary to support younger club members and lead and facilitate activities from teambuilding games to workshops with confidence. This includes an introduction to youth work for young people, confidentiality and boundaries and how to encourage participation.
Aims of the day
This train-the-trainer session introduces participants to Senior Member training and offers an opportunity to try out the resources written to support it.
It looks at ways to develop the different skills and qualities required to work with young people in a youth work environment.
An Introduction to Youth Work
This is an interactive course to develop effective, practical skills to work with young people. Suitable for voluntary agencies wishing to commission training for volunteers, social enterprises and companies who want to get involved with community projects, the training can be offered as a one or two day course. This day can also be adapted to train young people to facilitate peer led projects.
Learning outcomes:
Over the course participants will:
- Explore the values and ethos of youth work
- Consider the role of the youth worker
- Develop skills to engage and assess young people
- Reflect on personal values and attitudes
- Develop an awareness of professional confidentiality and boundaries
- Look at curriculum planning
Supporting Youth Work Resource Book: So, you want to work with young people
Introduction to Management
Aimed at new or prospective managers, this session offers an opportunity to develop management skills and explore basic management theories.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this training participants will have:
- An introduction to managing staff
- Explored basic management theories
- Developed an understanding of a range of management styles and some of the factors that need to be taken into account when leading a team
- Considered time management and ways to delegate and prioritise work
- Identified personal management styles and developed a leadership action plan
Developing Groupwork Skills
This course can be delivered as a one, two or three day programme. It is aimed at those who have not practiced groupwork before, or who wish to build and develop their existing knowledge. Suitable for anyone working with young people aged 11-19 in non-formal education settings, it explores key theories, dynamics and processes in working with or leading groups, as well as developing personal groupwork facilitation skills.
Learning outcomes;
By the end of the course participants should have:
- Explored group work theory
- An understanding of group processes and dynamics.
- Considered the positive and negative roles within groups.
- Considered strategies for dealing with difficult members and situations.
- Explored leadership and leadership styles
- Taken part in groupwork activities
- Experienced co-working and leading groups
Supporting Youth Work Resource Books: Teambuilding, Icebreakers, Evalutations & Endings
So you want to work with young people? - Training Volunteers
Aimed at voluntary & statutory youth services this training package offers quality ideas to train and support anyone volunteering to work with young people. This includes young people who want to volunteer.
This is an interactive day offering practical activities to explore volunteer’s motivation, confidentiality and boundaries, as well as how to engage with young people, which can be taken back into the workplace and used to develop effective training programmes. It is based on Vanessa’s best selling resource book "So you want to work with young people", published by the NYA.
Learning outcomes:
Over the day participants will:
- Explore motivation for volunteering
- Look at ways to explore stereotypes and assumptions with volunteers
- Consider ways to set and enforce boundaries and confidentiality
- Be given a suggested framework for training and staff development
- Try out training activities to use with volunteer staff
Supporting Youth Work Resource Book: So, you want to work with young people
Managing Challenging Behaviour
This is an introductory day for youth work practitioners to look at working with challenging and aggressive behaviour. It aims to support professionals working with young people in a range of settings including schools, youth clubs and detached projects by offering strategies, activities and an opportunity to share experiences and best practice.
Learning outcomes
Through this workshop participants will be able to:
- Define aggressive behaviour
- Consider their own responses to crisis/difficult situations
- Consider factors & 'triggers' that can lead to aggression
- Use a range of risk assessment and preventative work to reduce tensions
- Try out simple techniques to de-escalate challenging situations
- Explore issues through case study and group work activities
Developing Mentoring Skills
Becoming a mentor is all about developing good communication skills and positive relationships with young people, enabling them to set goals and work towards them with support.
This course is an introduction to mentoring and can be effectively used to train volunteer or paid mentors to support young people. It can be offered over six weeks (6 x 3 hourly sessions) or three days for up to fifteen participants. Alternatively it could be delivered as a ‘train the trainer’ package or adapted to train young people to become peer mentors.
Learning outcomes
This training programme will:
- Develop the skills required for coaching and mentoring
- Explore the role of ‘mentor’
- Consider boundaries and confidentiality
- Develop goal setting and action planning skills
- Look at ways to offer praise and celebrate achievement
- Explore ways to give effective feedback
- Look at assessing, recording and evaluating work
Developing Presentation Skills
Whether you are planning to get your message across to funders, senior managers or young people effective communication and good presentation skills are crucial. This course will help participants develop the skills needed to make interesting and powerful presentations, using a range of resources and styles. It will help you build the key personal skills needed for giving formal or informal presentations and gain confidence in your ability to communicate with an audience.
This is an interactive programme and there is an emphasis on practice, feedback and coaching. You will be expected to prepare a short presentation to deliver on the day and facilitate peer feedback.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this training, participants will have:
- Increased confidence in planning and preparing effective presentations
- Considered what impacts on peoples understanding and different learning styles
- Used key techniques for gaining and maintaining attention and credibility
- Reviewed effective feedback techniques
Feedback from delegates
'The training explored relevant equalities and diversity considerations, which is very important in mentoring young people'
'All of the activities that we undertook helped me to learn and made the training go quickly and enjoyably!'
'Vanessa is a fantastic trainer who really gets everyone in the group engaged.'
'I have attended a lot of similar courses and this counts as the best - the atmosphere was excellent and constructive'
Delegate: Various delegates,
Date: July 2010
Course attended: Developing Mentoring Skills
