Communication Skills Programme Development
We develop unique programmes designed to give your people the exact communication skills that they need to succeed in their roles.
Programmes that develop your people into supercommunicators...
A learning journey that supports your people to develop the communication skills that they need to succeed within their roles. Training, mentoring, self-guided learning, reflection and facilitated sessions all combine to create an environment where your future stars and leaders can excel.
Sounds too good to be true? It's not. It is what we do best.
The development of a communication skills programme for your organisation may seem like a daunting task, but it’s something that the team at Further are expert at. This page provides all that you need to know about the what, why, where and how of developing a communication skills programme for your people.
What is a communication skills development programme?
A communication skills development programme is a structured training initiative designed to help team members develop the communication skills needed to succeed within their roles.
The programme will focus on developing key communication skills that have been identified (we can help you with this bit!), as being vital to success within the team member’s role. At its simplest, the programme may take the form of a series training sessions, each focusing on developing a new key skill. At its most effective, the programme will be a blend of group training, coaching, mentoring, action learning sets, self-directed learning and more. It will likely take place at intervals over a period of six month or more.
The team at Further are great at working with organisations to research exactly what is required within their communication skills development programme and to develop the very best solutions.
What is the process for creating a communication skills programme?
Generally we work through the steps below to develop communication skills development programmes.
1. Research
This is a period of asking questions, conducting interviews and surveys. We’ll work together to REALLY understand what the business challenge is, and the communication skills that the learner will need to overcome it. We will confirm the scope of the project and the formats and structures that will best support your team to learn effectively.
2. Design
During this period we combine all of the insight and our expertise to create a unique programme that addresses the challenges that your team face. We’ll discuss, refine and then confirm the content and format with you. You will also meet the team of subject matter experts that will be delivering your communication skills programme.
3. Delivery
We will then proceed to delivering the agreed programme and supporting your team to learn and grow in a format that best suits their needs.
Throughout this time we will be in regular contact with you, working in partnership to ensure the very best learning experience for everyone.
4. Measurement and Reporting
The very best learning is measured. Measurement allows us to report on success and improve our performance too. Throughout each learner’s journey we will be regularly measuring their confidence, understanding and competence around the core skills that they are developing. We will report regularly on progress, in a format that is easy-to-read and share.
5. Refinement
Our focus is always on ensuring that the solutions that we develop go further. Once we have reviewed the findings from the measurement phase, we will begin to refine the communication skills programme content and format, ensuring that it is increasingly effective, year-on-year.
What format does a communication skills development programme take?
The format of each communication skills development programme is tailored to the needs of the learner and the organisation. Our design principles are usually guided by key ideas from adult learning theory, ensuring that content is relevant, experiential, and tailored to each learner’s context and experience.
Expect to encounter a mix of:
- training days
- one-to-one
- coaching and mentoring
- action learning sets
- self-guided learning
- micro-learning
All of this can be delivered in-person or virtually, depending on the cohort and geographical distance!
Over what time period should the communication skills programme take place?
Effectively spacing the learning interventions within the programme allows the learners to consider, practice and refine the skills that they are learning, between sessions. We design for long-term transfer of learning, drawing on research that shows repeated practice, feedback, and real-world application are key to embedding new skills.
How long should the programme be? This depends a lot on the type of skills being learned, the opportunities for learners to practice them between sessions, organisational constraints such as busy diaries and also on the format of the learning interventions too.
We will work with you to understand and agree the best timeframes, and to coordinate those busy diaries and workloads too!
How do we ensure that the communication skills programme is effective and supports learners?
The research and measurement phases are key to ensuring that learners are successfully supported to develop new skills and use them in practice.
During the research phase we ask all of the most important questions about what the learners need to achieve and how they learn best. This allows us to design and deliver the most effective learning solution.
Within the measurement phase we track progress against the measures that matter most. Yes, concepts such as Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation may be useful here, but we want to go further, developing measures that are really relevant to your learners and your business. We will work with you to understand and agree the measures that matter.
Start developing your Communication Skills Programme
Who delivers the communication skills development programme?
It is really important that each session or intervention within the communication skills development programme is delivered by a true expert that has an understanding of both the topic, and the learner’s situation too. If the necessary understanding and rapport isn’t there, then effective learning won’t be present either.
Every part of a communication skills programme developed by the team at Further will be delivered by the right expert, in the right way and at the right time.
How much does a communication skills development programme cost?
The fees associated with each communication skills development programme can vary depending on the amount of time and sessions involved.
Our focus at Further is always on finding the right solution for you, whatever your circumstances. Be open and clear with us about your budget and we will recommend the best solution.
If we cannot provide an effective solution within the budget that you have, then we will support you to find someone who can.
What are the first steps to creating a communication skills programme?
It’s all about an initial discussion. From there, we can start building a programme that will give your people the communication skills that they need to succeed.
Contact us here today to begin building your perfect programme.
