Monthly Archives: June 2018

Working with Your Trade Union

Working with Your Trade Union

This one day course aims to give staff, officers, and students an understanding of the relevance of Trade Unions both inside and outside of education. It tackles some of the problems and conflicts that can emerge when working locally, and also identifies potential benefits that are possible when these organisations work together. It takes a holistic approach, recognising that recent struggles have in some cases brought unions together locally, and in others caused considerable difficulty.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

  • Outline the purpose of trade unions, and their relevance in a precarious working climate
  • Explore Trade Union recent history in relation to Students’ Unions
  • Identify some of the potential conflicts and barriers to joint working
  • Explore the value of Trade Unions for students as workers
  • Evaluate which of the joint campaigning priorities of National Union of Students and Trade Unions Congress are relevant locally
  • Determine which projects and priorities of the Students’ Union could benefit from joint working with local Trade Unions
  • Generate a plan for joint working that will also respond to the needs of the student body

Cost

6 – 12 participants £650

12 – 20 participants £850

Please contact heather@magneticideals.org for further details or to book your session.  Let us know if there are ways we can tailor this training to respond to the specific needs of your organisation!

We encourage organisations to work together in partnership to allow training to happen and are happy to train multi-organisation cohorts.

10% discount for courses run in August 2018.

 

Student Researcher Training

This training course runs over one day and can be run for between 6 – 20 student participants, and prepares students to carry out student-led research for Students’ Unions.

This training will introduce student researchers to:

  • The purpose and motivation for student-led research activity
  • Basic research ethics, including confidentiality
  • An articulation of what critical discourse analysis is, and why it is useful
  • A basic introduction to interviews, surveys and desk-based research approaches
  • Value and limitations of quantitative methods
  • Coding as a method of qualitative analysis

It can also be modified to include specifics of the research project, including background knowledge and terminology.

Cost

6 – 12 student participants £650

12 – 20 student participants, £850

Please contact heather@magneticideals.org for further details or to book your session.  Let us know if there are ways we can tailor this training to respond to the specific needs of your organisation!

We encourage organisations to work together in partnership to allow training to happen and are happy to train multi-organisation cohorts.

10% discount for courses run in August 2018.

 

Fit for Funders Course – Delivered in-house for Students’ Unions, Charities and Community Organisations

An introduction to making funding applications and developing the skills to pitch your project ideas. These dual skills that must go hand in hand to make your funding application successful. This event is ideal for those working in the Students’ Union, community, voluntary or social enterprise sectors looking to develop their skills to achieve funding for projects.

All of our courses are interactive, creative and focused on reflecting on your working practice, and developed in consultation with the community sector.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understanding different funding streams available and how to access/identify them
  • Gain experience through looking at example grant forms from small and large funders and understand what they are asking for
  • Develop insight to establishing an evidence base for your applications
  • Evaluate the use of partnership working for projects
  • Understand and apply the principles of making an effective presentation/pitch

If you have specific funding streams you are looking at we can tailor the training so that participants are working with the exact forms and guidance that they will need to be using.

Course Schedule:

  • Day 1 – Introduction to funding, limitations and opportunities – how to source finding, different types of funding (including grant funding and crowdfunding) and how to access this; Unpicking the process, looking at different application forms and what they ask for, what different funders expect and how you might evidence the need for your project
  • Day 2 – Partnership Working and Presentations, how you can work with others to increase your chance of funding success alongside looking at what makes an effective presentation;  Making your pitch, in the final week everyone will get a chance to apply skills learning and do a short presentation on a funding idea and get feedback from the rest of the group

We deliver the course in-house in your organisation, it runs over 2 days for up to 12 participants.

Overall cost – £1350

10% Discount for August Only! For booking and further details contact heather@magneticideals.org

Demonstrating Impact Training – Effective and Innovative Research and Evidence Gathering for Annual Reporting, Funding Applications and Evaluation

Demonstrating Impact Course

Effective and Innovative Research and Evidence Gathering for Annual Reporting, Funder/Sponsor Reports and Funding Applications

This course tackles the tricky area of demonstrating the impact of your work.  This is ideal for those working in Students’ Unions, community, voluntary or social enterprise sectors looking to develop their skills in researching and reporting. It expands on the different ways you can collect and use data, and looks at ways that this can be done innovatively, engaging with service users.

All of our courses are interactive, creative and focused on reflecting on your working practice, and developed in consultation with the community sector.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Be able to describe, evaluate, and communicate the impact of your work
  • Be able to assess the requirements for different types of reporting
  • Evaluate the challenges of different types of research techniques and where to access support on using them
  • Be able to identify different types of data and understand how you might choose to analyse it
  • Understand how you can engage service users, customers or your audience creatively in measuring your impact

Course Schedule:

Day 1

  • A chance to share current experiences and problem solve issues you have faced
  • Responding to types of reporting processes
  • Research techniques: desk-based research, surveys, interviews
  • How to evidence different types of working
  • Data Protection

Day 2

  • Dealing with data, an introduction to working with different types of data and the limitations and challenges
  • Beyond KPI’s: A Creative Enhancement Based Approach to Planning and Evaluation
  • Using  case studies effectively
  • User-led impact mechanisms, storytelling, video work and visual arts as integral and robust reporting mechanisms

This event is ideal for those working in Students’ Unions, community, voluntary or social enterprise sectors looking to develop their skills in researching and reporting.

We deliver the course in-house in your organisation, it runs over 2 days for up to 12 participants.

Overall cost – £1350

10% Discount for August Only! For booking and further details contact heather@magneticideals.org

Train the Trainer Courses – Delivered in-house for Students’ Unions, Charities and Community Organisations

Train the Trainer Courses

All our train the trainer courses are delivered in-house at your organisation over 2 days for up to 12 people. They all involve practical application of skills and an opportunity to deliver and receive feedback on training in practice.  They build skills, confidence and knowledge about training resouces and networks!

 

Level 1 Course – For new trainers with little/no experience of training

Includes: Basic theories of learning, creating a safe learning environment, dealing with challenging behaviour, access and inclusion, delivering presentations with confidence, preparation and reflective practice, giving and receiving feedback on training.

Level 2 Course – For trainers looking to advance their practice

Includes: Theory and design, writing learning outcomes, differentiation of materials, facilitation skills, equality and diversity law and policy, advancing your training plan, evaluation and analysis, encouraging active learning, creative practice, resource design.

Bespoke Train the Trainer – we can help design a Train the Trainer programme specific to your needs, whether that is to deliver a specific piece of training (i.e. to teach a number of students to deliver Course Rep Training to their cohort, for volunteers doing outreach training) or to select a mix of the above learning outcomes from levels 1 and 2 to suit a particular group of staff.  Please contact us to discuss your specific needs.

Cost

Level 1: 2 days for up to 12 participants                 £1300

Level 2: 2 days for up to 12 participants                 £1500

 

Please contact heather@magneticideals.org for further details or to book your session.  Let us know if there are ways we can tailor this training to respond to the specific needs of your organisation!

We encourage organisations to work together in partnership to allow training to happen and are happy to train multi-organisation cohorts.

We are offering 10% discount for courses run in August 2018.

 

Idea Hack: Student Union Facilitation Sessions – Problem Solving, Planning and Idea Generation

These sessions aim to give you clear steps and managable goals for the future.  Over either a one or two day facilitated session tackle a problem, plan new idea or new development in the Union.

A series of creative exercises are used in these sessions.  these are specifically designed to level the playing field, and overcome restrictive power structures, allowing all members of the group to contribute to the process.  They are ideal for sessions that might involve joint planning between the SU and the University.  They focus on ideas generation, and try to break down restrictive ways of thinking, while understanding strengths and inherent possibilities.

Each session will be tailored to your specific problem, idea or development through two free phone or Skype consultations.  You will receive full notes and write up of the session discussions.  These sessions can run for groups of between 6 and 30 participants.

Useful for:  New sabbatical officer team planning, new project, department or funding bid, liberation campaign planning, advice or support service developments, student engagement in quality enhancement planning, student led research project development, new cooperatives, society development, joint projects with university departments

Pricing Structure

 

Includes Consultation for Session Development and Full Write Up 6 – 15 participants 15 – 30 participants
1 day £750 £1250
2 days £1350 £2150
½ day follow up session £400 £550

 

These above prices include the printing of materials for sessions at £50 per day – there is the option for these to be emailed over and printed in house by the SU or University removing this charge.

For Small/Specialist Students’ Unions there is a 25% discount, please contact us for further details.

heather@magneticideals.org

Further 10% discount available August bookings only

 

Inspiring Creativity – Training for Community Organisations, Charities and Students’ Unions

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

The value of creative thinking for workplace productivity and personal wellbeing is something that is understood but all too often not cultivated.  This course looks at how creativity used daily can improve working practices, to build confidence, facilitate collaborative working, inspire innovative thinking, and foster well-being. It will engage with different ideas of what creativity is, how the working environment can be made more creative and will leave each participant with a plan of how to personally become more creative in your own working practice  This training will be delivered in your organisation over two days, for up to 12 attendees.

The course is interactive, creative and focused on reflecting on your working practice.  All  our courses are developed in consultation with the community sector,

Learning Outcomes:

  • Identify ways to create a more creative working environment
  • Develop an understanding of the connection between wellbeing and creativity
  • Be able to inspire creativity in others
  • To have a grasp of different creative facilitation techniques and how you can use these
  • Be able to have a clear plan of how you can apply different techniques to increase your personal creativity

Course Schedule:

  • Day 1 – Defining creativity, art, inspiration, and connectivity, what does it mean in different working situations, why is this useful in the workplace? What does and doesn’t work and why; A creative environment – overcoming fear and workplace wellbeing, creating a balance: the role of confidentiality and the importance of space of sharing, team working, networking and diversity
  • Day 2 – Techniques for becoming more creative: exercise’s in lateral thinking, divergent thinking, metacognition; More creative facilitation techniques for mitigating power structures and encouraging engagement; Going further – looking at the actions you will take improve creativity in your workplace and making a personal creativity plan

This course can be delivered in-house for up to 12 attendees.  We encourage organisations to work together in partnership to allow training to happen and are happy to train multi-organisation cohorts.

Total delivery cost for 2 days and up to 12 attendees: £1350

10% discount for courses run in August 2018.

If you are interested and would like to know more please get in touch! heather@magneticideals.org