News

Listening to our learners

Last month all the trainers at the Scottish Community Mediation Centre met to review the previous six month’s training. We looked at what had worked well and explored what could be revised. In doing so, we read through the dozens of evaluations that learners had completed at the end of their course.
 
What stood out consistently was how much learners took away from the training. Whether it was having a difficult conversation with a work colleague, finding different ways to support clients or negotiating with a family member, people told us how helpful they found the skills taught. 

This is always reassuring, but it highlighted an important point. Four years after we applied our expertise and experience to adapt our training materials for online delivery, it reaffirmed the positives of using online training as a training format. 

Online delivery increases accessibility and lowers the overall cost which appeals to many.

For those who prefer face-to-face training, we offer two mediation training courses each year in a hybrid model. This hybrid approach provides online training for the first few days with face-to-face learning for the final two days. 

To learn how people enjoyed our training online is a reassuring endorsement. Some have only had poor experiences of learning online before they join us. I recall one group – a block booking of four staff – who had just joined us fresh from a four-day course which overused PowerPoint presentations. Whilst initially wary of our online training course, they spoke positively towards the end of the course about how engaging and enjoyable it was.

So as we move into 2025, we look forward to welcoming new faces and old to our courses and workshops.