Help, I will be running a personal development course for a Supported housing project, The age group is 16 - 25. Now a stipulation of the housing project is that the group have to attend the life skills sessions. How on earth to you get people to engage on a course that they don't really want to be on ?
6 Responses
How to engage learners
Hi Nicky
You could try Diamond 9?
Choose 9 categories that are an essential part of the thinking process you want the delegates to go through.
ie Safety, Security, Costs etc etc
Give these to delegates in a jumbled up order. The delegates now arrange in a diamond 9 formation which clearly shows most and least important and discussion can evolve around equality.
(This will seem much clearer when you see the template!)
I’ll see if I can post it on the resources section?
Regards
Steve
get them to talk about themselves
I like Steve’s suggestion a lot. Getting people to rank or sort things is a brilliant way to get people engaged.
I’d also suggest getting them to talk briefly in pairs about themselves- nothing sensitive, just “a holiday I’d like” or something similar. Then get them into different pairs with an other question. This is Life Skills stuff anyway, and can also be fun.
(I might add that there’s no harm in reminding them that they have to do this anyway so they may as well get on with it! You’re not there to entertain them after all)
Good Idea
Good Idea J
I would also recommend showing some Video clips as 16 to 25 love videos!
Music would also engage them…especially the kind they like rather than what we probably like!
Lots of behavioural stuff to be had from
real life situations…ie playing music too loud to show its affect on others!
Good luck
Steve
How Do We Engage Course Delegates
thanks Guys
I have the downloaded the diamond activity
are there any free resources out there for teaching with music and videos that your aware of
Nick
Resources
Hi Nick
Diamond 9 s a fantastic activity so good luck with it!
Lots of free resources here that could solve your video/music problem.
http://c4lpt.co.uk/learningtools.html
Best regards
Steve
Diamond 9
LOVE IT !!!
will be trying that one out myself…
in the job i currently perform (training New Deal 18-24) if i had a group of 10 guaranteed 8 of them would be there because they would get their benefits stopped, and already have a preconcieved idea that the course is going to be rubbish and that they feel like they are back at school.. so what do i do 1st thing on a Monday (bearing in mind i have a roll on roll off provision every 2 weeks) ??
on a Monday morning i deliberatley dress down.. hoodie, jeans, trainers etc.. and stroll in at about 20 past 9.. (the group dont know who the course tutor is and think i am ‘one of them’ !! after a short time of chatting and getting to know them i pretend to be the tutor at the front of the room.. the penny then drops!! (the rest of the week i am suited and booted)
I have to do the Induction, which isnt particularly enjoyable considering its all paperwork… however the conversation never moves away from the subjects i feel brings everyone together (for that age range) Money and socialising. and this is the theme for the rest of the two weeks.. what do you need to enjoy yourselves? MONEY!! the odd one or two have got career aspirations etc.. but most of them just simply want an extra £15 to get the crates of lager in..
you mention Life Skills Nicky.. what kind of life skills are these? are we looking at literacy and Numeracy?
the BBC Skills wise website i find has excellent resources for Lit and Num.. obviously you need to find out what levels the individuals you are training are at.. a simple Work Skills Assessment will help you out no end
in summary.. find out what the individuals like doing and relate the training to this.. 16-24’s will only be interested in one thing.. as already mentioned, Money and Socialising 🙂
and you will learn a lot about your own trainign style with the youngsters 🙂