Training courses

Course list

• Administration training: skills for administrators

  This course will cover all the basics of administration from time management and prioritisation to systems and the need for organisation. You will learn a range of administration skills, from the basics of finance as well to communication skills and customer care. You will also have an opportunity to explore working with your manager and adapting to your manager’s style and look at delegating and accepting delegation effectively.

• Administration: essential skills for administrators

  In any organisation, the administration team has the biggest variety of responsibilities. It has to be constantly flexible and responsive to the needs of management. The administration team is the face of the organisation as they can be the first…

• Advanced writing skills

  Although some authors are naturally gifted, even the most talented work hard to improve their performance and constantly strive to maintain it at the highest level. This course, which takes place at the Centre's Central London training suite, deals primarily…

• Appraisal skills

  This London based one day training workshop is part of our management training portfolio, focusing on performance management. It will give you a sound overview of the appraisal process as well as helping you make the most of the appraisals…

• Assertiveness skills: a practical approach

  This London based assertiveness training provides the skills you need to become more assertive, and helps you develop a personal style that will benefit you, your colleagues and your organisation.

• Basic writing skills: power workshop

  Do you put off writing till a deadline looms? Do you try and delegate your writing tasks ? Are you unsure about the rules of grammar and punctuation? Are you self-conscious about your spelling?
  
  If you would like to gain confidence in writing at work, but can’t spare a day out of the office, this short surgery session is for you. Come and share your problems in a small, supportive group, and get one-to-one professional guidance on how to write better. You will also take away a handbook with notes on grammar, punctuation and spelling, and a list of useful online resources and publications to help you develop your skills.

• Blogging: writing a blog that works hard for your organisation

  If you are writing a blog, or considering writing a blog on behalf of your organisation, there’s a lot to think about before you start. This London based blog writing course guides you through the key strategic decisions you need to make for a well-planned, expertly written and efficiently evaluated blog. You will also cover the key writing skills that result in excellent blog posts, every time.

• Boards adding value: excellence in governance

  Voluntary boards can be a significant asset to 3rd Sector organisations. Everybody who regularly sits at the board table needs a chance to think about the way in which the board can add value to an organisation and what activities…

• Book keeping for beginners

  This book keeping training course is intended to provide an introduction to financial record keeping. It will provide a thorough understanding of how to enter and maintain financial records ready to be used in the preparation of financial statements. This…

• Budgeting for non financial managers

  Our London based budget management courses are for everyone struggling to put together and manage a budget within a not for profit organisation. It takes a practical, hands on, straightforward approach to budget making and will give invaluable tools and…

• Business planning: turning the vision into reality

  This course deals with the practical aspects of business planning – those one to three year plans that show what you are actually going to do. You will use a range of proven tools and techniques to practice putting together a compelling plan.
  Starting from your organisation’s strategic position, we will look at priorities and SMART objectives that turn the vision into reality. Keeping in mind the needs of your beneficiaries or target market, we will review the external environment and how you should respond with new structures, processes and programmes.
  In these difficult times, we will examine the changes you want to bring about and choices you will have to make, whilst exploring the financial plans that will underpin your ability to deliver. We will create scenarios to better understand “what if…” and review the impact of risks and their mitigation.
  Finally, we will consider the role of communication in setting expectations and implementing the plan.
  

• Business writing skills

  If you are unsure about the basic rules of grammar and punctuation, struggle to write clearly and concisely or need help with your business writing skills, this two-day business writing course will help increase your skills and boost your confidence.

• Coaching skills for managers

  Coaching is an invaluable tool for managers who want to motivate and support their team to improve performance and manage change. It can also be part of an organisational strategy to support change at individual, team and organisational level.
  …

• Conflict resolution: an introduction

  This London based conflict management training course provides you with the practical tips, techniques and strategies to calmly and effectively deal with the day to day niggles and disagreements of everyday working life.

• Copywriting

  If you are writing on behalf of your organisation, it’s because you want your audience to think something, feel something or do something. Our copywriting training courses in London give you the skills and confidence to write exceptional corporate copy that has the impact you need.

• Creative thinking and innovation toolkit: tools for creativity

  This one day course first covers some basic theory and background, clarifying what the world of ‘creative thinking’ and ‘innovation’ looks like. It then looks at principles, practices and tools around creative thinking in particular. There will be opportunities to apply the tools and techniques and practice running creative thinking sessions and being a creative thinker yourself, giving you a creativr thinking toolkit to use in the future.
  
  Creative thinking is a course for anyone and everyone. It doesn’t matter what organisation or industry you are in, what your job title, role and responsibilities are, what your age or gender is and whether you think you are naturally creative or naturally not! (By the way, everyone can be a creative thinker). It will still work for you.

• Customer care and telephone skills

  Good customer care depends on staff acting with professionalism and self-confidence. This course will help new staff to practice good customer care and is an enjoyable refresher for more experienced front line staff.

• Delegation skills

  Delegation is an essential part of management. Yet many managers fear to ‘let go’ of vital tasks, feeling that they run risks in delegating and that ‘it’s quicker to do it myself’. This course will give you the essential tools you need to delegate well.

• Dignity at work: preventing bullying and harassment

  A dignity at work policy, with clear procedures, is a vital part of any modern, diverse workplace. Bullying and harassment are destructive to the recipient, the perpetrator and the organisation, and can be challenging for managers to deal with. This…

• Diversity awareness: encouraging and managing diversity

  A diverse organisation can draw on a wide range of views and experience, so that it is well placed to listen to, and meet, the changing needs of its staff and public. Many organisations have legal duties and performance indicators…

• Diversity matters

  Diversity is an important issue for all organisations to consider for 3 main reasons: to comply with legislation, to be ethical and responsible and to maximise potential business benefits. This half-day diversity awareness workshop is designed to introduce delegates to…

• Diversity planning

  How you plan for diversity can often depend on what the initial driver is for drawing up a plan in the first place. Perhaps a review of your polices and practices has prompted you to develop a diversity strategy, maybe…

• Diversity: managing diversity for better performance

  A diverse workforce brings both challenges and benefits. Manage the challenges well and the benefits will be noticed in both individual and team performance. This course is about equipping yourself to lead a diversity competent team or department through appropriate…

• Email newsletters and ebulletins

  Enews products are one of the most important marketing tools you have available to you. This immediate, low-cost way of building and maintaining a relationship with your audience can build your membership, increase support or sales, increase brand awareness and…

• Emotional intelligence in management and leadership

  This emotional intelligence training course is for all managers wishing to work with emotional intelligence and to maximise their emotional intelligence and that of their people, team and organisation.
  
  It introduces the concept of EI, offers frameworks…

• Evaluate your organisation’s financial performance

  This course is designed to provide participants of not for profit organisations with the skills and knowledge they require to evaluate the financial performance of their organisation and to develop strategies to address any weaknesses.

• Event management: advanced event management

  Designed as a follow-on from Event management: an introduction, this course is aimed at event directors and managers wishing to review and update their skills, knowledge and expertise in the ever growing arena of event management.

• Event management: an introduction

  Whether it is a national conference, a specialist training session, a public meeting, or a local fundraiser, events are the public face of your organisation. This one-day event management training course offers a practical guide, and you will leave with…

• Facilitation skills

  This course looks at principles, values and techniques for dynamic, participatory and experiential facilitation. There will be opportunities to apply the tools and techniques and practice facilitation yourselves.
  
  Participants will develop their skills in planning and…

• Feedback skills: delivering feedback with confidence

  Feedback is extremely powerful. Handled well it can be a brilliant management tool that helps to inspire and motivate, and makes people feel valued. However, if we get it wrong, it can have a very negative impact on our staff…

• Finance skills for non financial managers

  This finance for non financial managers training course demystifies finance. It will give you a thorough grounding in organisational finance and how it works, so that you can understand and communicate about the finances of your organisation, team or project.…

• Focus groups

  Do you know what your customers are thinking and feeling? A focus group can help you find out. A well run focus group can give you valuable insights and help you plan better products and services. This practical course will…

• Grammar and punctuation at work

  Can you put a comma before ‘and’? What exactly are verbs? And what’s the difference between a hyphen and a dash? If you missed out on grammar and punctuation at school, or have forgotten what you once learned, this invaluable refresher course will quickly put you back on track.
  
  You will find out why grammar matters and which bits matter most; how to avoid getting things wrong; and when and how to punctuate for clarity and meaning. It’s only by understanding the building blocks of language that you will gradually gain confidence as a writer – not just so as to avoid mistakes, but also so as to manipulate words to do what you want them to.

• Handling difficult people and situations: essential tools

  Many of us face difficult encounters with employees or colleagues which, if not handled properly, can have serious repercussions for the whole staff team. This conflict resolution training course will equip you with tools and techniques for dealing with different…

• Handling difficult people and situations: extending your skills and confidence

  Whether it’s disciplining a colleague or handling a sensitive issue, we all face difficult communications challenges in the workplace. They are unpleasant, stressful and can be very emotionally draining. It’s awful when it’s a customer but can be even worse when it’s a team member or manager. Our two day course has been designed to give you the confidence and know how to handle these challenges professionally and positively.
  
  Unfortunately this isn’t a skill we’re taught at school or college so often our fear of tackling a difficult team member or a tricky situation lets the problem escalate. This course will empower delegates to take control of these difficult situations and provide a safe environment to talk openly about the problems they have to deal with. By the end of the session you’ll leave feeling calm and capable, with the tools and practical experience needed to diffuse a difficult situation.
  
  The course will cover how difficult people think, what they fear and why they act like they do. The programme is highly interactive and practical with exercises, self-assessments, group work, case studies and role playing. This two day course differs from the one day course as it allows for a deeper exploration of the subject area, including self-assessment exercises and situation role plays.

• Handling the press and media: how to get your story covered

  Good media coverage gets your message across to the public and decision makers better than any other communication method. Learning how to deal with journalists allows you to positively influence what is printed and broadcast.
  
  This…

• HR skills for non HR managers

  Our one day HR courses in London for non-managers offers an overview of the key elements of personnel management that non HR specialists will need to ensure that they get their people problems right. Working with a senior Fellow of…

• Induction: creating an effective induction programme

  Recruitment costs are high and we put a lot of time and effort in recruiting good staff. A good induction programme can make a big difference to how quickly and easily new staff settle into an organisation and become effective…

• Influencing skills

  Influencing skills are indispensable in modern organisations. Command and control structures have given way to less hierarchical, cross team and partnership working where you get things done by inspiring and persuading.
  
  This two day influencing skills…

• Internal communication

  Successful internal communication lies at the heart of any thriving organisation – it delivers information to the right people at the right time, it helps involve and motivate staff and makes a big contribution to effective external communication, too. If people don’t communicate well teams soon feel out of touch and uninformed.
  
  Our one day internal communication courses are for anybody interested in shaping the communication culture of their organisation. It provides lots of practical tips for improving the way in which people relate and process information.

• Introduction to leadership

  ‘What does it mean to step up to a leadership position?’
  ‘I am a new team leader – what’s the difference between leadership and management?’
  ‘What does it mean to lead a team anyway?’
  ‘How do you lead a group who until recently have been your peers and friends?’
  ‘Are junior managers also leaders?’
  ‘Are leaders born or made?’
  
  This course provides you with a comprehensive introduction to leadership and to the skills and qualities associated with leading people and teams.
  
  This is currently only available as an in-house training course, and is not on our open training programme.
  
  

• Leadership and communication skills for women managers

  As women make their way toward top positions and centre stage roles in the public, voluntary and private sectors, organisations are under increasing pressure to bolster their boards with independent “heavyweights” and these are increasingly women.
  
  Women bring a creative spark, intelligence, personality, professional ability and motivation to senior roles, but there are still constraints on career progression, both organisational and personal.

• Leading and managing change

  Change is the only constant at work and without it we can’t go forward. But most of us resist change to a greater or lesser extent. How can we, as managers, empower ourselves to embrace change and enthuse our teams to do the same? Understanding how change works is key to our success and this practical course will give you tools for understanding underlying models of change as well as how to work with others to ensure good results. We will look at different kinds of change and how to lead in different circumstances and the course will give you plenty of practical tools, checklists and ideas to take back to the workplace and put into practice straight away.

• Listening skills

  This one day workshop focuses on a key but often ignored communication skill: focused listening. If you consider the four basic communication skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing, it is interesting to note that listening is the first learned, the most used and the least taught whereas writing is the last learned, least used and the most taught. With that in mind, reflect on your years in education--from primary school through university. Was there ever a dedicated course offered to you in listening?

• Management training: moving from manager to leader - taking on a senior management role

  Our senior management training courses in London are for new or aspiring senior managers and chief executives who have at least three years' experience, with direct responsibility for managing both people and resources. In challenging times, it provides a much…

• Management training: moving into management - taking on your first management role

  These two-and-a-half-day management training courses have been specifically designed for people who are embarking on a new role in management. It will increase your understanding of the manager’s role, and leave you with a development plan for gaining further management skills.

• Management training: moving up in management - extending your management skills

  Often managers are in post for some years, without having any management training. They function well enough in role, and yet they may feel they have missed out on the opportunity to learn and develop new skills, and on some…

• Managing a media crisis

  Reputation is one of the most important assets any organisation has. It can take years to build, but can be lost overnight. This highly participative course will help you put in place crisis management procedures and develop the media handling…

• Managing better meetings

  Meetings which go over their allotted time? Poor attendance coupled with endemic lateness? Agendas which don’t hang together and have to be changed as you go along? Participants who feel frustrated and negative? Unclear outcomes or none at all - do your meetings sometimes feel like this? If so, this is the course for you.

• Managing poor performance, absence and stress

  Our one day performance management training courses are ideal for line managers and those supporting them in dealing with difficult cases of poor employee performance. It recognises that in some situations the objective will be improvement, while others call for…

• Managing volunteers

  The not for profit sector already has a great track record in working with volunteers. In the current climate, when funding is tight, having a team of volunteers to call on is more important than ever. Our volunteer management training…

• Managing your organisation’s reputation: building your brand and values

  A good reputation will help your organisation develop strong relationships with customers, win funding and enhance your influence. It will enable you to become the partner of choice. By the end of the course you will have a clear idea…

• Marketing in the not-for-profit sector: a beginner’s guide

  This one day course offers an introduction to marketing for not-for- profit organisations wanting to understand the basics of marketing and how the principles can be applied to the work of charities. It will give you a good grounding in…

• Marketing: getting your message across

  A lifetime of marketing in a day: an introductory course for anyone who needs to develop a marketing programme; suitable for people working within any sector.
  
  Having a good product or service is important; selling it at…

• Mediation skills for managers

  This two day mediation skills course is designed to provide an overview of how mediation works, the benefits of using it in the workplace and will equip managers with the skills used by mediators to nip conflict in the bud.

• Mindfulness at work: an introduction

  Mindfulness - non-judgemental present moment attention training - has been shown by a growing number of studies to have beneficial effects on health, productivity and team dynamics. Corporate mindfulness and meditation training is now used by many large companies such…

• Minutes: taking and writing effective minutes - for the public sector

  This minute taking course, designed specifically for public sector organisations, takes a practical hands on approach to minutes with lots of exercies so that you can practise new skills. Our trainers are very familiar with the requirements of minute taking…

• Minutes: taking and writing effective minutes - one day course

  Our one-day minute taking courses is a sound introduction to minute taking and equips you with the knowledge and skills you need to write professional minutes.

• Minutes: taking and writing effective minutes - two day course

  All organisations need minutes. They are essential if teams, committees and boards are to have a clear record of the decisions they have made and the actions required. Effective minute taking is a must for the efficient organisation and a…

• Monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment: making a difference

  “Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted, counts” Albert Einstein
  
  The pressures for “change”, “getting results” or “having an impact” are ever-present in today’s workplace. Whether these arise from new initiatives or plans, change programmes or projects it has become increasingly important to demonstrate success or adapt to changing circumstances. But, as the quote suggests, these can sometimes be elusive. Monitoring progress and evaluation of results can help but what do you measure and when? How do you balance “doing the right thing” with “doing it right”?
  
  “It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong” John Maynard Keynes
  
  This one day introductory course will clarify your thinking, enable you to build monitoring and evaluation systems into your plans from the outset and help you demonstrate that you are making a difference.

• Moving into management: taking on your first management role - for the public sector

  Are you in your first management role?
  Would you like to know more about how to motivate and manage your team?
  Are you conscious that you should delegate more but unsure how to go about it?
  Do you work within the public sector, including housing, health or education?
  
  This course is for you.
  
  The Centre’s Moving into management course for the public sector, endorsed by the Institute of Leadership and Management, will give you the basic knowledge and understanding you need to be a successful first-time manager. Aimed at new managers and those contemplating their first management role, it comes with a number of tips and tools to use as a manager that are tried and tested in real management situations. Our publication ‘Moving into management’ by Julia Braggins comes free with every booking and is a useful refresher, reinforcing the general overview of management techniques and tools given within the course.
  
  Each delegate leaves with a concrete plan of action to take forward and the follow up session helps to reinforce these goals and explore what worked and what still needs to be in place.

• Negotiation skills

  Negotiation can help you achieve aims and solve problems. It is about reaching win:win solutions, where all parties feel the outcome is fair. This course will help you understand the process of negotiation – how to prepare, having clear aims and objectives, how and when to use different negotiating styles, strategies and tactics. It will give you the confidence to be a successful negotiator. You will also have the opportunity of practising your new skills with video feedback.

• Networking and representing your organisation

  How you perform as a representative reflects on your organisation as well as on you. If the values of your organisation are embodied in the way you present yourself, other people gain a clearer understanding of your corporate attitudes and…

• Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)

  Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) offers a set of psychological tools to develop yourself both professionally and personally. This London based NLP course will introduce you to Neuro Linguistic Programming offering a mix of experiential activities, demonstrations, an introduction to key…

• Office management: effective office management

  An efficient office is often commented on or given due praise. An inefficient office can cause the organisation a lot of stress and strife amongst staff. Planning and co-ordinating the smooth and efficient execution of the workload, building up and…

• PA skills: The Executive PA - moving from secretary to an executive PA role

  For PA's who have just been promoted to the role or wish to progress to a more senior level.
  
  The Executive PA is in a position of special responsibility; supporting directors and senior managers and playing a…

• PA to the senior manager

  Being a senior PA can, at times, be lonely and isolating. You need tact, discretion and a proactive approach to your work, as well as a good understanding of your organisation and your manager’s approach.
  
  This two-day course helps you understand your role better and shows you how to discuss and develop your relationship with your manager. The course has been specially designed to run in-house, bringing together all PAs for senior managers, helping develop an organisation-wide approach.

• Parliamentary lobbying

  Over the last eighteen months, the coalition government has developed a relatively stable modus operandi but there is still much to explore in working in this context, particularly in the parliamentary arena. This course offers you the chance to examine…

• Partnering for success

  Partnering is everywhere these days – we are either expected to work in partnership, to find partners or to be part of a local strategic partnership. But what does the word really mean – what difference will “working in partnership” make to our effectiveness? The secret is to build value.
  
  Many organisations are moving from transactional relationships towards new types of partnership based on shared interests and mutually achievable outcomes. This one-day course will set you up for success and deal with ‘relationship problems’ so you can get the most out of collaborative working.
  
  The course uses case studies and interactive, experiential learning (including role plays) to explore the bases of great partnerships and how to deal with the natural bumps along the road to success.
  

• Personal effectiveness: be more confident at work

  Ever wish you had more confidence when you’re at work? This course will help you find that confidence in a range of situations – speaking up at meetings, giving presentations, attending networking events, asking for a rise or more holidays or just generally feeling more confident within a group. We all wish we had more confidence in difficult situations but sometimes lack of confidence can be a real barrier to success at work. This course will help you look at the things that get in the way of confident behaviour and give you some practical tips and tools that you can take away and start to use straight away.

• Persuasive writing

  This course is designed specifically for those who write for challenging audiences. Whether you need your readers to change their mind about a particular issue or to commit to a change in behaviour you will pick up the tips and…

• PR strategies that work

  Successful public relations starts with a strategic approach, whether you are promoting an organisation, an initiative, a service, an issue or a product. If you have the responsibility for developing your organisation's PR strategy, this is the course for you!

• Preparing tenders and proposals: the pitch, process and presentation

  This highly practical one day workshop will prepare you for all aspects of tendering to deliver services and developing fundraising proposals, with a particular emphasis on ‘consultative selling’ techniques. The seminar will also focus on maintaining good client/funder relationships once the contract/funding has been awarded.

• Presentation skills: one day course - making confident and effective presentations

  Giving a presentation can be a scary prospect - but this course will give you the confidence and presentation skills to become an effective speaker. And you will even have fun at the same time!
  
  Our…

• Presentation skills: two day course - extending your public speaking skills

  In a communication led world, most of us have to give presentations – at conferences, receptions, pitches or in-house meetings. And most of us would like to stand out from the crowd – to give memorable presentations that really touch the audience.
  
  This two day presentation skills course will help you find your own unique, high impact style. It will build on the skills you have and enable you to be a highly effective spokesperson for your organisation.

• Presentations or speeches: one-to-one coaching

  Do you have an important speech or presentation coming up? Is it giving you sleepless nights? This intensive, half-day, one-to-one coaching session will refresh your skills, boost your confidence and help you make the most of the event.

• Print newsletters that will get read

  Print newsletters play a central role in building – and keeping – your relationship with your audience. But coming up with ideas, keeping your publication fresh, and editing work from other people can present a challenge. Print newsletters that will get read shows you how to do all this, and much more. You will learn the tips and techniques that the professionals use to write quickly, creatively and always hit the mark. Get your message across time and time again.

• Problem solving: tools to enhance your performance

  This practical two day programme will help you become more effective at problem solving, whether the problems you face are due to people or systems. You will also become more aware of your own strengths and weaknesses in terms of…

• Productive and positive: managing stress successfully

  In these busy times, we all need to stay focussed, in a positive frame of mind and highly productive to maintain an ‘edge’ over our competitors. Good health and wellbeing can be the key to achieving this, but often in trying hard to stay ahead we get the balance slightly wrong with devastating effects. This one-day course allows you to identify the causes of stress in your own life and to understand how pressure can feel so different – even motivating! You will then explore practical ways of achieving balance and maintaining high levels of productivity by focussing on five key areas that can improve your wellbeing and energy levels, your thought patterns for a more successful future and improving your life balance.

• Professional writing skills for non-native English speakers

  “I can speak English fluently, but writing letters and emails at work is very different.”
  
  “I studied English to a high level, but I never learned any business writing.”
  
  “My line manager often changes what I have written without explanation.”
  
  Does this sound like you? If English isn’t your first language, business writing can be a big challenge. You may be extremely good at grammar and spelling, but not quite so sure how to word an email or construct an effective letter. This customised course will help you to express yourself clearly and appropriately in written English, including tips on building your skills and confidence.

• Project management

  This two day project management course looks at every aspect of managing a project. Working on your own case study, you will learn and apply the many tools and techniques involved. It will help you get more structure into your…

• Project management: intermediate course - managing complex projects

  This two day course looks at every aspect of managing a sizeable project, allowing delegates to work on a case study of their own, to learn and apply the many tools and techniques involved. The course is aimed at those…

• Proofreading

  This proofreading course will give you lots of tips and leave you with a clear understanding of how to proofread, with proofreading skills to put into practice straight away.

• Radio and Television Interviews

  How you present yourself in radio and television interviews has a direct impact on audience opinion of your organisation as a whole. This media relations training course will help you develop the skills you need to make sure you say…

• Receptionist training: becoming an exceptional receptionist

  As a receptionist you are the public face and voice of your organisation, so the impression you give is the image that counts. Good communication skills are essential and this course looks at how to develop your professionalism and excel…

• Recruitment and selection: finding the right person for the job

  This course is designed to help you recruit the right person for the job and build a diverse and competent workforce for your organisation.

• Report writing skills

  High quality reports often form the basis of sound decision making within an organisation and being known as someone who can express information in a clear, unbiased way can do a lot for your reputation at work.
  

• Resolving conflict with the customer

  Specially designed for staff whose job brings them into regular and direct contact with the general public, this London based conflict management course provides you with the tools and strategies to deal with unhappy customers positively, professionally and safely.

• Restructures: managing a restructure

  This intensive, one day course will equip managers with the tools they need when taking their team or department through the painful process of restructure. We cover the whole process from designing the restructure, through the proper consultation stages and looking at redundancy and how to manage the emotional turmoil involved in many restructures. You will come away with several ‘how to’ guides to help you in this difficult process.

• Social media and online communications: a strategic approach

  For anyone who wants to incorporate social media and online communications into their PR strategy. Social media and online communications need to be integrated into an organisation’s PR strategy if it is going to communicate effectively. This non-technical social media training course will introduce participants to the opportunities social media provides to reach their audiences in new and cost effective ways.
  

• Speed reading

  Want to save two hours a day? You could by doubling your reading speed, and still not miss a thing.
  
  Do you often lose concentration and forget what you have read? If so, you could learn how to focus better and remember more.
  
  There has never been so much information at our fingertips as there is now. Yet are you trained to use it?
  
  You are still probably reading based on what you were taught as a child. To make matters worse, you have probably developed bad habits which make your reading skills possibly the least efficient of all your personal skills – yet at which you spend the most time! But you could improve dramatically.
  
  Most people are likely to see an improvement of going from reading approximately 230 words per minute, to reading 500-700 words per minute by the end of the course.

• Strategic planning and thinking

  Strategic planning is about getting your team, department or organisation where it needs to go. Starting from knowing where you are and moving to where you want to get to, this course takes you right through the strategic planning process…

• Strategy: an introduction

  Thinking and planning more strategically is important for everyone these days. Suitable for anyone facing a strategic challenge, this course will help you get started by giving you some useful concepts, frameworks and tools you can use right away to…

• Supervision skills: managing people and teams

  Performance management is perhaps one of the biggest concerns of managers - it is a key responsibility for anyone who has a line management role, and, along with motivating and dealing with staff development, is an integral part of that…

• Team building

  Building an effective team can be a challenge. This training course will identify the leadership style most appropriate for your work. You will cover the life-cycle of team development, the difference between leaders and managers, and the basic skills involved…

• Team leader skills: building and leading a high performance team

  Our one day team leader training course give new and aspiring team leaders the tools, techniques and models they need to be able to put together and lead an effective team that gets the work done. All aspects of team…

• The effective learning and development administrator

  Designed for individuals who need an understanding of organisational learning and development, who wish to develop the skills and knowledge required for this role. This course is intended as a practical experience where participants will be able to review the…

• Time management for administrators: managing time and workload

  Our time management training courses for administrators look at what time management means and explores the key tools for managing our time. Participants are encouraged to keep a diary for a short period before the course and we will use…

• Time management for managers: work smarter, not harder

  As Oscar Wilde said, “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” Spending your time effectively will mean you get much more out of your life. It is the key to work life balance and wellbeing at work.
  
  Our time management training courses show managers how to take a positive approach to time management. It highlights the skills and techniques required to make the most of every day, without feeling overwhelmed by work overload and the demands of your job and your team.

• Training the trainer

  Increasingly, many of us are called upon to train colleagues or run training sessions for partner organisations. Perhaps you have a role in induction training, or maybe you are a manager who needs to upskill your team to face a new challenge. Maybe you are an IT professional who helps staff develop the skills to use a new system. Perhaps you would like to move into training as a career move.
  
  Whether training is a big part of your role, or just a small aspect of your job, our two day training the trainer training courses will help you design and deliver effective training programmes. You will gain confidence in how to present information effectively with variety and flair and acquire the skills to deal with the dynamics of group learning.
  
  Highly practical, the training the trainer training course will introduce you to new techniques, enhance your communication skills and provide lots of opportunities to ‘have a go’.
  
  

• Winning pitches

  Getting competitive pitches right can make all the difference to an organisation's success. The Centre has a history of developing winning pitches with and for a wide variety of organisations and we have developed this course to share our expertise.

• Writing for the web

  A strong website works for your organisation 24 hours a day. This popular non-technical course helps you understand the role of website copy and how it differs from writing for other publications.

• Writing letters and emails

  If you'd like to cut down the time you spend composing letters and emails, or want to write more fluently and waffle less, or wish your emails got better results - then this course is for you. You will learn…

• Writing publications: leaflets and promotional literature

  Whether you need to inform your readers or encourage them to take action, high quality print materials are central to your organisation's success. It’s vital that your publications are clear, engaging and on message if you want to be respected and trusted.

• Writing skills: freshen up your writing

  Does your organisation's writing style match its aims and personality? Do your messages come across clearly? Could you write more concisely, more engagingly and more effectively?
  
  We can customise a stimulating, half-day session for your team that is guaranteed to raise their game. And we’ll leave you with a useful toolkit to continue the work afterwards.

• Writing skills: the basics - one day course

  If you are new to writing at work and are unsure about the basic rules of writing, or missed out on them at school, this one day writing course is for you.
  
  We will use a…

• Writing speeches: keynotes, presentations and special occasion addresses

  With a little coaching and preparation, most people can deliver a speech, but few can actually write a good one. That’s why we hear so many inept ones. A well-written and well-delivered speech can be a forceful medium for promoting an organisation and highlighting its leaders as well as a powerful way to communicate messages. But a poorly planned and written speech can have the opposite effect, even delivered by the best speakers.
  
  In this interactive one day workshop, learn simple skills to help you to write for the ear, not the eye. When you write a good speech – whether for yourself or another person – it connects with the audience and moves them along a path you have persuaded them to follow. It engages emotions, shapes opinions and gets results. You will acquire user-friendly techniques for researching and composing speeches to engage, inform, entertain and motivate listeners.