I train what I do, which means the training I offer is rooted in practice. I have a good understanding of the issues faced by practitioners, and seek to tailor my courses to meet the needs and expectations of each group of delegates.

I offer courses in aspects of: Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Engagement, Facilitation and Participatory Research

Courses are usually half a day or a full day. Shorter workshop style sessions are also available.

 

Examples of courses

All courses are interactive and involve a mix of information, discussion and practical tasks.

Stakeholder analysis: a systematic, participatory, approach to identifying the key stakeholders and their characteristics. This, often overlooked process, assists project planning by allowing resources to be targeted more efficiently and by helping make clear the kind of relationships that are appropriate with different stakeholder groups.

Engaging with hard to reach groups: There is no magic bullet when it comes to engaging with hard to reach groups but there are things that can be done to make success more likely. This course explores the “can-do’s” of engaging with groups whose voices might not otherwise be heard.

Running a participatory workshop or Focus Group: The course covers how to plan and run a participatory workshop or focus group, including an introduction to participatory techniques and how to deal with difficult situations.

Public engagement: Training in public engagement is usually tailored to the particular needs of the client. For example: Public engagement training for social housing providers, is a modular training course which has been purpose designed for social-housing providers. It is aimed at staff or volunteers with a responsibility for engaging with tenants or local community members. It includes four modules covering key aspects of public engagement which may be purchased individually or as a block.

Facilitation skills: The course explores the purpose of facilitation, and some important concepts which help participants reflect upon and refine their own approach to facilitation. It covers the role, skills and qualities of the facilitator and offers opportunities to practice some particularly useful participatory techniques to assist the facilitator.

Participatory research techniques: One of the most popular courses; it focuses on practical and experiential training in as many as possible of the most useful participatory techniques for research, evaluation, engagement and facilitation.

Analysing qualitative data (including participatory data analysis). So you have conducted a focus group or spoken with people in other ways as part of an evaluation or an engagement activity and they have told you their views. Now how do you make the best use of those piles of written notes you have accumulated? The course offers a practical introduction to qualitative data analysis including practising a simple, yet highly effective technique for participatory analysis.

Action research capacity building course: This three and a half day course combines several other courses to build the capacity of an organisation to carry out action research. Participants spend two days learning about action research, practising participatory techniques, and planning a piece of participatory action research. Participants then carry out the research with a half-day workshop built in to the process to review progress and remedy any difficulties being experienced. The final day involves the participatory analysis of the information collected and the formulation of conclusions and recommendations.

Monitoring and Evaluation – designing an evaluation that works for you. This course aims to make evaluation understandable. It looks at what evaluation can achieve, reviews selected approaches to evaluation and offers practical, participatory techniques to select indicators, choose monitoring and research methods, and put these together in an evaluation plan.

The Most Significant Change Approach. Is a way of evaluating using story-telling instead of indicators. This approach is proving popular in Wales at the moment and I am in the process of running my first MSC based evaluation. Training based on experience will soon be available.

 

I also deliver training for Participation Cymru: https://participation.cymru/en/

I currently co-deliver accredited courses for Participation Cymru in Public Engagement and Sharing Power (co-production).

Public Engagement: http://www.agored.cymru/Units-and-Qualifications/Unit/CCY105

Shared Power: http://www.agored.cymru/Units-and-Qualifications/Unit/CDF118