All Development and Alumni Relations - Staff Learning & Development courses

As we move into a hybrid way of working many of our working routines will change in some way. Some of these changes will make our working lives easier, some may make them harder and this will be the case for us personally and also for members of your teams.

What won’t have changed for many of us is the workload and the need to deliver high quality work, on time. As managers, part of our role will entail helping our team members navigate new and amended work practices. The recipe to do this will be slightly different from team to team, however, there will be some universal methods which help most hybrid teams and some common mistakes to avoid.

This session focuses on getting the basics right and empowering our teams with a firm foundation to build on over the coming months and years ahead.

This one hour session will include;

• Understanding the most influential factors to support hybrid team working
• Acknowledging the pain points for your team
• Optimising communication to strengthen psychological safety and effectiveness
• Planning improvements using a selection of 8 Minimum Effective Dose techniques for hybrid teams

Microsoft Excel is great for storing and organising your data, but it can be time-consuming and frustrating to find the information you need.

This workshop will show you how to use Excel's powerful tools to quickly retrieve, view and summarise information in numerous ways.

We will cover:

• Ensuring accurate data entry with data validation
• Time-saving filters
• Visually explore and analyse data using conditional formatting
• Create interactive filters in PivotTables
• Present your information as a chart
• Dos and don'ts when working with data
• Time-saving tricks and shortcuts

The course includes access to a month's free support on any of the topics covered.

Microsoft Excel has lots of underutilised features that can help to save time and improve productivity. The primary objective of this workshop is to show you how to use these features and to demonstrate their effectiveness, challenging you to do things differently.

We will cover:

• Working with Formulas and Functions
• Save time and apply Formulas and Functions to your everyday tasks
• Search for a value in one place and insert it in another using lookup functions
• Avoid the 'pitfalls' of relative cell references
• Test certain conditions and return one of two entries
• Work with named cells to work faster and smarter with your formulas
• Managing large workbooks
• Trace and audit formulas in a worksheet
• Create a simple dashboard
• Produce summary reports from different worksheets
• Merge data from multiple users by linking workbooks

The course includes access to a month's free support on any of the topics covered.

Whether we like it or not, email is one of the main ways we communicate in our day-to-day work. However, you may not be using Outlook to its full potential as it has a number of underutilised tools.

Although we know there are probably easier ways to use Outlook, we often don't have the time or energy to sift through and find the hints and tips ourselves. This 90-minute workshop will guide you through some of the more hidden features to increase productivity.

We will cover:

• Top ten diary management tips
• Decluttering your inbox to prevent email overload
• Finding a needle in a haystack
• Email etiquette dos and don’ts
• Customising and getting the most out of Outlook
• Hidden features to improve your efficiency and increase productivity

The course includes access to a month's free support on any of the topics covered.

A lively, fast-paced mix of demonstrations - learn how to create professional PowerPoint slides that will keep your audience engaged through the length of your talk - and pick up lots of time-saving tips along the way.

We will cover:

• Adding visual interest to reach your audience
• Understanding and working with SmartArt
• Setting up and reformatting an organisation chart
• Converting existing presentations to create high impact slide shows
• Preventing 'death by PowerPoint'
• Create a "flow" that will hold your audience's attention
• Adding animation effects and timing to slides
• Tailor your presentation to different audiences, using custom slide shows
• Branching to specific slides in a slide show
• Importing an outline document into PowerPoint
• Saving a presentation so that other people can watch the presentation on most computers

The course includes access to a month's free support on any of the topics covered.

Microsoft Word is a widely used and powerful word-processing package. The primary objective of this workshop is to broaden your knowledge of Word and to benefit from its overlooked and underused features in order to increase your productivity.

This 90-minute workshop will guide you through the topics and pick up lots of time-saving tips along the way.

We will be cover:

• Maintaining consistency using Styles
• Save time by applying Styles to text
• Modify a Style for the current document
• Protect your document by setting formatting and editing restrictions
• Working with long documents
• Specify different page layouts by inserting Section Breaks
• Refer to text such as headings and numbered lists using cross-references
• Create an index, listing keywords along with the page numbers
• Add visual interest using pictures, charts and SmartArt
• Create a list of cross-references to pictures, charts and SmartArt

The course includes access to a month's free support on any of the topics covered.

In this 1 hour session learn;

• Establish a method that works for you to enhance focus for the most important work (Deep Work)
• Reduce distraction and prioritise more effectively
• Establish one daily Protective Pause, to relieve stress, reduce self criticism and strengthen resilience - mini mindfulness
• Create the space to recognise your achievements each day - increase self awareness and confidence

The Benefits:

• Protect yourself from distraction to enhance focus
• Plan effectively to spend more time on Deep Work (the stuff that matters) and less time on Shallow Work (overwhelming admin)
• Protect time for higher cognitive tasks - the challenging stuff
• Create valuable perspective to respond more effectively

Enhance focus, reduce stress and strengthen resilience. All techniques proven by science.

Windows 10 has a wealth of nifty, new features which means you might not be using your computer to its full potential. Although you probably know there are easier ways to use your PC, you simply don't have the time or energy to sift through and find the hints and tips yourself.

This 90-minute workshop will guide you through some of the more hidden features to increase productivity.

We will cover:

• Find a needle in a haystack
• Get organised and declutter
• Dos and don'ts of information management
• Customise Windows and get the most out of your computer
• Discover hidden features to improve your efficiency and increase productivity
• Save time by learning numerous tips and shortcuts

The course includes access to a month's free support on any of the topics covered.

Welcome to our Podcast Group Series!

Each session we will focus on a different episode from a number of different podcast providers, exploring topics to advance our own personal and professional development. Before the session you will listen to the identified podcast and reflect upon individually, in your own time. We will then come together as group for a facilitated discussion and activities to explore the topic in more detail with colleagues and reflect as a group.

For this session we will be looking at: How to Coach Yourself

This episode provided by Squiggly Careers Amazing If podcasts, looks at some of the tools professional coaches use and how we might apply them to ourselves and aid our own development.

https://www.amazingif.com/listen/how-to-coach-yourself/

Please also take a look at the Pod Sheet provided with the episode as we will refer to this in our session.

Psychological Safety – we have heard the term, but what does it mean on a practical level?

In this focused workshop we will bring the term to life – exploring what it means, and most importantly, sharing practical ideas of how we can each promote a culture where we each feel safe to be ourselves, safe to fully contribute and feel valued. We will focus on two key areas – Psychological Safety (feeling safe to put oneself at risk) and Psychological Standing (feeling entitled to speak up and to act).

Pearn Kandola has worked with organisations for nearly 40 years to promote inclusive and high performance cultures. In addition to working with Higher Education, they draw on their experience of working across a range of sectors in the UK and internationally.

This course is about recharging your communication. It will cover:

• Determine what effective communication means. Where do we start?
• How to strengthen the relationships most important to us; work & home
• Defusing difficult conversations; How to respond to difficult behaviour
• The power of Active Listening to understand and communicate meaning more effectively

The Staff Review and Development (SRD) process provides the opportunity for you to engage in a constructive discussion with your line manager about your current and future work and your personal and career development.

Join Bukky for this informal session which will cover an overview of the process, practical advice and useful reminders of good practice to help you to make the most of SRD. The session is a chance to consider how you can prepare for a constructive and meaningful discussion, and ask any questions you may have.

The session will help us all reflect and prepare for the next iteration of our Gallup Q12 survey.

We would explore the role of line managers on the satisfaction and motivation levels their team members, in addition to the office-wide initiatives that we have in place. What is the responsibility of Leadership Team, of Senior Management Group, and of individual managers to help employees feel engaged, satisfied and motivated, and ultimately to positively impact retention.

Have you ever been concerned about a situation and wanted to help, but didn't? Hearing a racist/sexist/homophobic joke in the tea room? Seeing an inappropriate touch of a friend? Watching a colleague wince at being belittled or interrupted in a team meeting? You're not alone, this is more common for many of us than you might think.

Come along to this short session to find out why this happens and what it means to be an active bystander. This includes simple changes and actions you can take to support others around you without confrontation and, over time, support a more inclusive environment for all of us to live and work in.

Want to become Buddy but not sure what is means? worried about having no experience? Worry no more!

In this informal workshop learn about our buddy programme, how to be a great buddy, how to communicate effectively, what to do in difficult scenarios, and a few other top tips!

You can ask any questions and raise any concerns you have about becoming a buddy during the session.

Participants review coaching tools introduced in the Major Gift Officer Learning Series:

• Donor Development Chart
• Priority Grid
• Personality Profiles
• Nine Navigation Points for Strategy
• Process for Locating Philanthropic Passion

Participants plan how they will lead by example to best equip their teams to apply each tool habitually.

Participants step through each of the nine Navigation Points and experienced managers discuss how they have embedded these concepts in their work—what has worked well, and what they would like advice on improving.

Participants discuss their common challenges in coaching team members to greatest advantage and brainstorm how to address these challenges.

Participants create an action plan to commit to supporting their team members regularly, strategically, and intentionally before, during, and after the series.

This one-day course is an introduction to managing projects and sets out a series of 10 logical steps and presents them in a practical way.

The course is based on established project management principles which can be applied across industry and although it is not focused on individual organisational methods the training will seek to apply the learning to the specific environments that the delegates work in.

Everyone will be provided with a ‘soft’ copy of Provek’s ‘How to Run a Project (and Succeed!) in 10 steps’ book which includes a number of practical scenarios and examples of key project documentation.

The course will include the following:

• Identifying projects in a world of business-as-usual.
• Creating a life cycle structure for a project.
• Laying solid foundations for a project (business case and requirements).
• Planning a project.
• Getting buy-in for a project.
• Allocating work effectively to a team.
• Monitoring and controlling a project.
• Managing unplanned events (risks, issues and changes).

An intensive programme providing skills based training on capabilities and strategies for major gift fundraising within the University and Colleges.

The programme consists of four sessions over a five month period;

• Session 1 - Donor-Centred Philanthropy
• Session 2 - Optimising the In-Person Meeting
• Sessions 3 & 4 - Driving Meaningful Commitment

A short, intensive workshop exploring the role of the manager in supporting participants through the Major Gift Officer Learning Series. The half day workshop will cover;

• Coaching fundamentals.
• Key tools and concepts that will be used within the Major Gift Officer Learning Series and how managers can use them to help their teams apply what has been learnt.
• Strategies for coaching teams to higher levels of performance.

Partners in Philanthropy Briefing is a workshop for previous participants of the Major Gift Officer Learning Series.

Participants will receive a refresher of the tools, techniques and concepts covered in the original learning series and explore how these will be embedded into the organisation to better support the development process and create a cohesive culture of philanthropy.

Delivered in a safe and supportive environment, this harassment prevention training offers individuals the opportunity to learn about the different factors that might create and perpetuate a work environment in which harassment and bullying occur, and strategies for how to address this.

The course is designed to give participants an overview of Lean thinking as applied within Higher Education, and an explanation of some of the basic tools used to make improvements to processes. This session will focus on how to break down a problem and work towards a justifiable and confident decision to achieve the best outcome you can.