Programme Outcomes

• Plan and Prepare for facilitation
• Facilitate Learning
• Evaluate Learning and facilitation

Who will benefit from this course?

• Trainers
• Coaches
• Supervisors
• Managers

Entrance Requirements

It is the assumption that learners are already competent in the area which they will provide training and learners should have a good comprehension of English.

Overview of Facilitator Training

What Is a Facilitator?

The definition of facilitate is “to make easy” or “ease a process”. What a facilitator does is plan, guide and manage a group event to ensure that the group’s objectives are met effectively, with clear thinking, good participation and full buy-in from everyone who is involved.

To facilitate effectively, you must be objective. This doesn’t mean you have to come from outside the organization or team, though. It simply means that, for the purposes of this group process, you will take a neutral stance. You step back from the detailed content and from your own personal views, and focus purely on the group process. (The “group process” is the approach used to manage discussions, get the best from all members, and bring the event through to a successful conclusion. How you design this depends on many factors, and we’ll explore this in a little more detail later in the article. The secret of great facilitation is a group process that flows – and with it will flow the group’s ideas, solutions, and decisions too.)

Your key responsibility as a facilitator is to create this group process and an environment in which it can flourish, and so help the group reach a successful decision, solution or conclusion.

A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion. Some facilitator tools will try to assist the group in achieving a consensus on any disagreements that preexist or emerge in the meeting so that it has a strong basis for future action.

Training facilitators

Training facilitators are used in adult education. These facilitators are not always subject experts, and attempt to draw on the existing knowledge of the participant(s), and to then facilitate access to training where gaps in knowledge are identified and agreed on. Training facilitators focus on the foundations of adult education: establish existing knowledge, build on it and keep it relevant. The role is different from a trainer with subject expertise. Such a person will take a more leading role and take a group through an agenda designed to transmit a body of knowledge or a set of skills to be acquired.

Skills of a Facilitator

The basic skills of a facilitator are about following good meeting practices: timekeeping, following an agreed-upon agenda, and keeping a clear record. The higher-order skills involve watching the group and its individuals in light of group dynamics. In addition, facilitators also need a variety of listening skills including ability to paraphrase; stack a conversation; draw people out; balance participation; and make space for more reticent group members (Kaner, et al., 1996). It is critical to the facilitator’s role to have the knowledge and skill to be able to intervene in a way that adds to the group’s creativity rather than taking away from it.

A successful facilitator embodies respect for others and a watchful awareness of the many layers of reality in a human group.

In the event that a consensus cannot be reached then the facilitator would assist the group in understanding the differences that divide it.