Photo of a team meeting.

Custom group training: Workplace Learning

An organization's success often correlates to the quality of its internal training program. Enhance your team's skills in instructional design, workplace coaching, presentation and facilitation skills, and more.

Continuing Studies at UVic can organize and deliver custom programs centred on workplace learning for your business or organization. 

Sample offerings

Below are topics that we've offered in the past, however if you have something specific in mind, we can develop custom learning solutions to meet your needs. To learn more about our process, see Custom Learning Solutions. 

Many organizations today are using blended learning models to deliver training and facilitate learning. So: what is blended learning and how can you use it to create quality, engaging learning events? 

In this hands-on course you will learn how to design synchronous and asynchronous blended training that will engage learners and make learning stick. There will be opportunities to network, collaborate and share a variety of blended learning design and development tools and techniques. 

A blended learning approach is integral to the delivery of this course. You will be engaging in asynchronous directed and self-directed learning and virtual classroom learning activities.

Learner assessment in this course is performance-based. There are three course assignments that reflect real-world training situations.

This course focuses on the application of tools and technologies to workplace training.

Learning objectives

  • Analyze classroom-based training programs for potential conversion to a blended learning solution.
  • Apply instructional design and adult learning principles to the design of blended learning events.
  • Apply a framework for integrating classroom instruction and online elements into a blended course.
  • Identify tools and technologies for blended learning and assess the use of each.
  • Engage in a team-based blended learning project planning, design, review and development process.
  • Assess which training requirements are best suited for blended instruction based on the capabilities and constraints of a particular work environment.
  • Create a blended learning design document that incorporates accepted instructional design, adult learning and learner assessment methodologies.
  • Develop and present a blended learning training solution.

Goal setting is both an art and a science. By learning more creative ways to assist learners and clients with their goals, you can provide inspiration and impetus for meaningful change.

This course will appeal to career practitioners, teachers, trainers and human resource personnel who wish to become more effective as helpers. It is an opportunity to develop new skills in helping yourself and others set goals that are personal, sensible and dynamic. Learning will be achieved through practice sessions, videos and mapping techniques.

Learning objectives

  • Create lifespace maps in such a way that their goals, skills and abilities will be clearly represented.
  • Assist others in the same way, thus aiding in a process of goal clarification and attainment.

This workshop will introduce you to a variety of creativity tools that will enhance problem solving, goal setting and visionary thinking in both business and personal contexts.

Using experiential exercises, you will learn how to think more creatively and freely as an individual as well as a team member. Creativity tools offer new perspectives and can inform action to enable you to become an effective change agent at work as well as at home.

You will receive a handout package detailing the tools acquired in class, as well as a reference list for other creativity sources.

Learning objectives

  • To appeal to all three learning preferences: auditory, visual, kinaesthetic.
  • To touch upon all aspects of us as humans: emotional, psychological, spiritual, physical, & mental.
  • Teach creativity tools for individuals and groups.
  • Introduce both academic and popular literature on creativity.
  • Allow students the time to explore their own relationship to creativity and to begin to address mental models or other factors that block creativity.

Remember when IQ was the major predictor of professional success? Well, no longer. Research shows that our emotional intelligence is the primary indicator for both personal and professional success; the good news is that it can be learned.

In this workshop, we’ll explore and hone our emotional intelligence using the research from Goleman, Bar-On and Short. In addition, we'll learn about Gardener's multiple intelligence theory and how to implement this into our working world and personal relationships.

Learning objectives

  • Describe and work with Daniel Goleman’s emotional intelligence framework.
  • Describe and work with Reuven Bar-On’s emotional intelligence framework.
  • Describe and work with Ronald Short’s emotional intelligence framework.
  • Consider the similarities and differences between the emotional intelligence frameworks.
  • Describe and work with Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences framework.
  • Employ the working knowledge of these frameworks into their personal, academic, and professional worlds.
  • Use Kolb’s learning cycle as a template for experimenting with the intelligences

The ability to speak well in front of a group is a fundamental skill in the professional world. Moreover, the ability to convey important information to a group is pivotal to team and organizational success. So why is it that so many presentations are long, boring and lacking in inspiration? Enter Dynamic Presentations.

In this workshop, students will learn the three most important elements of a solid presentation: narrative, argument and audience engagement. Using the Pecha Kucha (pe-CHA ku-CHA) format of presenting, students will learn to deliver a leading edge presentation that will educate, motivate, persuade and entertain an audience.

Learning objectives

  • Design a simple, clear, memorable message that engages audiences
  • Structure logical rhetorical arguments to support a position
  • Use facts, examples and stories effectively to support their message
  • Use effective visuals to support their message
  • Use the Pecha Kucha format as a presentation tool

Coaching is a powerful catalyst for supporting individual and team learning in the workplace. Coaching helps others think through their issues or problems and find their own solutions.

Workplace coaching is less like sports coaching, where the coach tells players what to do, and more about creating an environment for learning and enhancing personal learning skills. Effective workplace coaches foster curiosity where individuals feel comfortable discussing their challenges and hopes, exploring their current reality, brainstorming options and making actionable plans to move toward their future. An effective coach is a good thinking partner, not necessarily a content expert or instructor.

This workshop is designed to help participants develop the skills to support others’ to discover their own solutions, especially when it seems easier to just deliver the answer.

Learning objectives

  • Describe the similarities and differences among coaching, mentoring and teaching.
  • Identify when to use coaching to support learning.
  • Demonstrate that you can be coached.
  • Demonstrate advanced communication skills related to coaching: creating a climate for coaching, being present, active listening, open ended inquiry and action planning.
  • Use the G.R.O.W. coaching model to support others’ learning.
  • Describe ways to build a coaching culture in the workplace.

In this workshop, you will learn ways to keep your classroom learners engaged through the effective use of educational technology. By building tasks and activities that are supported through the use of readily available apps and internet tools, your classroom training will be more interactive, and will build opportunities for a greater sense of accomplishment in your adult learners. We will discuss different options for engaging learners, opportunities to allow greater creativity in your sessions, and how to provide a sense of accomplishment for your learners. In this workshop we will also discuss the changing landscape of educational technology, how to choose the right technology for the purpose, and will also cover topics such as privacy and consent. This workshop is intended for facilitators of face-to-face classroom learning, in-house training, corporate training sessions, or anyone delivering training to groups of people in the classroom.

Learning objectives

By the end of the workshop, attendees will be able to:

  • Describe different types of classroom technologies, and compare their relative strengths.
  • Choose different engagement strategies based on different requirements for learning.
  • Identify ways to enhance face-to-face learning using educational technology. 
  • Describe five key strategies for effective and constructive adult learning. 
  • Assess different technology options, and make decisions based on cost, ease of use, comfort level, and privacy. 
  • Construct a plan for delivering a learning opportunity using appropriate technologies. 

Teamwork is a mainstay in most organizations. A group of dedicated individuals working toward a common goal can create exceptional results – if the team is healthy and adaptive. But how do you, as the leader of a team, create a healthy team that knows how to learn from and trust each other?

If you are a trainer, facilitator or instructor responsible for a team, this workshop is for you. We’ll learn how to build trust, learning and cooperation into the fabric of teams. Drawing upon experts in the field such as Patrick Lencioni, Bolman & Deal, Peter Senge, Bruce Tuckman and Kohn & O’Connell, you’ll leave this workshop knowing how to build a true dream team.

Learning objectives

  • Identify and implement the qualities of a high-performing team.
  • Identify and implement the criterion for team success.
  • Understand the dynamics of roles, decision-making, group vision and group values and be able to implement them on your team.
  • Identify and use Tuchman’s group development model.
  • Identify and use Lencioni’s five dysfunctions of a team to create health and trust.
  • Identify Bolman & Deal’s four frames of an organization and where your team fits.

In this workshop, you will improve your instructional skills and facilitate learning by designing and delivering three 10 minute lessons, and by participating as a learner in other people’s lessons. Feedback from participants and discussion of learning theory will help you develop effective teaching practices. We create a supportive and confidential learning environment where you can experiment and learn from others.

We’ll also:

  • identify and discuss instructional and classroom issues
  • learn how to use audiovisual media
  • explore learning and teaching styles

Participants regularly declare that this workshop has been a pivotal experience in their careers. If you wish to be an instructor, then the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) is the place to start! If you are experienced, the Instructional Skills Workshop is a powerful, experiential workshop or laboratory in which to refine your practice.

Learning objectives

  • Plan lessons.
  • Define outcomes & learning objectives.
  • Facilitate participative learning activities.
  • Evaluate learning.
  • Give and receive feedback on what helped and/or hindered learning.
  • Reflect on these outcomes and create a personal/professional development plan.

Contact

For more information, please contact our Program Coordinator Alison Brophey at 250-721-7860 or cacecoord@uvic.ca.