SOFT SKILLS COURSES
Research confirms that personal liability is often not given serious consideration by many practicing engineers. In most cases Professional engineers place all their assets at risk in the course of practicing in their profession. Furthermore, the effect on personal liability of obtaining a professional engineering license or sealing plans is equally misunderstood within the engineering field.
This one-day online workshop aims at examining scenarios in which professional engineers can face personal liability.
- Delegates will gain an understanding of how the law approaches questions of an engineer’s liability
- An appreciation of how some practices you encounter in the workplace could expose one to claims and of the consequences that flow from this.
- An understanding of some steps one can take to ensure that one does not face those claims and if they do how to manage them.
- An appreciation of what your insurance policy may and may not cover.
- Delegates will also gain insight into the potential length of time an individual may be liable for acts on a project after the project has been concluded.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, you will understand the common causes that lead to the filing of professional liability claims. You will also be able to recognize the pitfalls in the terms and conditions of a standard contract and how to develop effective and proven strategies to minimize your exposure.You should then be able to evaluate your own projects and identify which aspects or components expose you unnecessarily to the possibility of being sued in court or held responsible for unfavourable outcomes resulting from the performance of your work. You should also be able to understand what benefits you could realize if the preventive measures are properly implemented.
Successfully managing a project requires effective planning and adherence to the industry’s best practices in every step of the process. By understanding the fundamentals of project management, you will be better prepared to initiate a project in your organization and position it for success. In this course, you will identify effective project management practices and their related processes.
Who Should Attend:
This two-day course is designed for individuals whose primary job is not project management, but who manage projects on an informal basis. Also, anyone who is considering a career path in project management and desiring a complete overview of the field and its generally accepted practices can benefit from this course.
Course Objectives
In this course, you will examine the elements of sound project management and apply the generally recognised practices to successfully manage projects.
You will:
- Identify the key process and requirements of project management.
- Initiate a project.
- Plan for time and cost.
- Pan for project risk, communication, and change control
- Execute, manage, and control a project.
- Close a project
Course Objectives
This two-day course provides delegates with an overview of the Protection of Personal Information Act and the significant obligations placed on those business leaders identified as the "responsible parties" and "information officers".
Accountability for something as important as privacy protection and the protection of the organization’s reputation rightly belongs with the executive managers. The POPI Act aims to encourage the protection of personal information that is processed by both public and private bodies. The Act will introduce certain conditions that will establish the minimum requirements that businesses must comply with when processing personal information. Many functions (e.g. HR, Operations, Information Systems, Public Affairs, and Marketing) will need to bring their practices into line to ensure that the organization’s response is consistent and serves the organization’s enterprise-wide goals and strategies.
The collection of personal information must be for a specifically defined, lawful purpose related to a function of the responsible party. The processing of data must be for a legitimate purpose. Data subjects must be aware of the collection of the data. Adequate business controls are required to maintain data integrity and information security must meet international standards. Data must be retained only for as long as necessary and then it must be destroyed.
This practical one-day course will improve participants’ public speaking skills and knowledge. The training includes effective presentation techniques to enable delegates to present professionally and confidently, as well as engage well with the audience.
In addition, participants will have the opportunity to make short presentations and will receive feedback on their current presentation style, as well as ideas to enhance their delivery.
Target Audience
This training course is perfect for those new to making presentations and those with experience of presenting, who want to improve their communication delivery style and the impact of their business presentations.
Course Objectives
By the end of this one-day course, the participants will have:
- Practised projecting and vary the pitch, pace and tone of their voice to gain and retain audience interest and reinforce the presentation messages, when public speaking
- Used posture and movement to give additional impact to verbal messages rather than distract or irritate the audience
- Reviewed how to prepare presentations and visual aids to be interesting, persuasive and to communicate key messages
- Identified the best ways to interact with the audience, control and handle challenging individuals
- Applied their learning to a work presentation and received feedback on their style and impact in presenting
Develop your business communication skills and build rapport with colleagues and customers. This is a practical one-day training course focusing on effective communication and interpersonal skills for business. This workshop will enable participants to communicate clearly and with impact, by improving their verbal and non-verbal communication style, as well as enhancing interpersonal skills.
Target Audience
The course provides communication skills training for individuals wishing to develop their interpersonal skills and build rapport with others in the workplace. The training covers effective communication strategies to enhance understanding and verbal communication with others. This business-orientated course is also helpful to those providing or selling a service to others, as well as people responsible for managing communication across teams and the organisation.
Course Objectives
By the end of this one-day course, the participants will have:
- Recognised different styles of communication and how to improve understanding and build rapport with others.
- Reflected on different methods of communication and decided when each is most suitable.
- Appreciated the role of body language and voice tone in effective communication.
- Communicated their message in an effective and engaging way for the recipient.
This training course provides participants with strategies for effective supervision, and the skills and knowledge required to lead a team or work group in a business environment. The course includes developing plans, providing leadership and supervising the performance of a work team.
Through the trainer’s expertise and practical knowledge, you will be able to define the key concepts associated with supervisory skills and you will be able to:
- Use a relationship based management process that supports achieving improved business results
- Focus their efforts on issues they can control or influence and away from issues where they have no control
- Understand how their attitude affects the personal productivity of employees
- Recognize how the behaviors of effective managers help with the achievement of effective business results.
- Understand what actions they need to take with their employees
- Practice sharing power, resulting in power becoming a multiplier within the company
- Examine and align their expectations, the company’s and the employee’s
- Gain employee trust through the use of respect and recognition
Target Audience
PAs support senior managers by offering administrative duties, so it is important that they consistently find ways to up their game. The need to have a deep understanding of the company and know who the key personnel are is essential, as they are representing a senior member of staff. For this same reason, it is important a PA has great interpersonal skills, is well-presented and professional. This one-day course will update and enhance core PA skills with new strategies and the latest PA best practice techniques. It will teach Assistants how to think outside the box when planning complex executive travel, and how to focus on the detail when planning important meetings. It will also teach Assistants additional strategies for finding time in the diary, and show them how to work more proactively with executives, how to write more concisely, and how to build rapport with difficult people.
Course Objectives
- Establishing the objectives of the modern PA
- Optimising your strategic business partnership
- Effective strategies for planning complex executive travel
- Diary management techniques
- Techniques for taking minutes and action points
- Comprehensive meeting planning practices
- Prioritising effectively and avoiding time stealers
- Sharpening business writing skills
- Setting goals for growth in your role
Aims and Outcomes
The Advanced Executive PA Masterclass is for senior Assistants who are eager to build on their strengths and challenge their weaknesses. This 2-day course develops wide ranging skills: particularly, how to present, influence, and quickly plan projects, how to use emotional intelligence, and how to master win‐win negotiation. This course aims to take the senior PA’s capabilities to the next level so that they become better strategic business partners and manage their executive’s workflow more effectively.
Course Objectives
- Anticipating the needs of your executive
- Project planning strategy
- Influencing and presentation skills
- Time-saving email management strategy
- Practicing win‐win negotiation
- Prioritising the demands of multiple managers
- Using emotional intelligence with your team
- Creating a powerful personal brand
- Moving forward through continuous development
Aims and Outcomes
This one-day course offers Personal Assistants effective strategies for building a productive strategic partnership with their boss, and for anticipating their boss’s needs. It also provides an opportunity for Assistants to review work practices and update core skills with the latest PA best practice. This course takes a thorough look at every element of meeting planning and offers great meeting planning resources in the comprehensive workbook provided. Assistants will learn time-saving email management systems, and strategies for creating more time in the diary. They will also learn how to use emotional intelligence when resolving issues with their team, as well as how to think outside the box when planning complex business travel.
Course Objectives
- Anticipating the needs of your boss
- Effective strategies for planning complex executive travel
- Time‐saving email management systems
- Comprehensive diary management techniques
- Tips for taking minutes and action points
- Comprehensive meeting planning practices
- Prioritising effectively & avoiding time stealers
- Sharpening business writing skills
- Using emotional intelligence with your team
Aims and Outcomes
Effective EAs deliver high level strategic management support and business assistance to executives. This 3-day advanced level course offers an opportunity to invest in the holistic development of your support team. Delegates will learn effective best practice techniques for boosting the success of their strategic partnerships. This course will develop their technical skills and emotional intelligence to the next level using interesting and challenging exercises. Delegates will also learn how to create powerful personal brand that benefits their organisation. This course provides much food for thought and will invariably result in higher levels of proactivity, productivity and professionalism. The course can be taught in 3 consecutive days or 3 non-consecutive days over a period of 3 months.
Course Objectives
- Increasing the productivity of your working partnership
- Diary management, email etiquette, and effective meeting planning
- Better use of time, information management and complex executive travel
- Growing in your role
- Building a strategic partnership with your executive
- Blending in with the executive team
- Managing your time and your team
- Understanding project management processes
- Communication skills‐getting what you want from others
- Win‐win negotiation and problem solving strategies
- Increasing your managerial potential
- How to move forward in your career
The business writing course equips you with the skills you need to produce clear and effective professional communications. From emails and reports to webpages and social media content, every organisation has a constant need for a variety of internal and external written communications.
Who Should Attend:
Business writing skills will improve the confidence and accuracy of professionals who write on a daily basis as well as those who write less frequently.
This Business Writing course is suitable for those wishing to improve their writing, editing, and presentation abilities. The course includes guidance on emails, report writing, social media, blog posts, and more.
In the workplace these days, not only does employees need to have technical skills, they also need to have personal qualities such as initiative, adaptability, empathy and persuasiveness. These personal traits are the skills of Emotional Intelligence.This course highlights the skills of Emotional Intelligence and how they can be utilised to great effect in the workplace.
Course Objectives
Delegates will learn:
- The meaning of emotional intelligence and its purpose in the workplace
- The five competencies of Emotional Intelligence – Creative Tension, Active choice, Resilience under Pressure, Empathic Relationships, Self-Awareness and Control
- The identification of motivational emotions
- The identification of the skills required to develop Emotional Intelligence within themselves
- How to develop a personal plan to utilise the skills of Emotional Intelligence
- How to practice their newly acquired skills in a work context
- How to develop an action plan for implementation in the workplace
Mastering assertiveness skills can do a lot more than just help win arguments and being liked at work is fine until it means you find it difficult to say to people what you need to say, without feeling awkward. Assertiveness Training for Managers gives delegates the opportunity to practice the skills of being assertive in a wide variety of situations. It also gets them to examine the beliefs that people have about not being assertive and explores ways of challenging those beliefs.
Course Objectives
Delegates will learn and:
- Demonstrate their understanding of assertive behaviour, so that communication is appropriate and effective
- Identify the three behaviours and their effect on people
- Practice a range of assertiveness techniques
- Practice dealing with aggressive and submissive behaviour
- Gain confidence when dealing with challenging situations
- Agree an action plan and identified skills they will put into practice with a timescale to check progress