At the Maguire Communication Skills Training Unit, our passion is for improving the health and well-being of patients and staff through confident, compassionate communication.

We are a team of specialist trainers in The School of Oncology at The Christie NHS Trust in Manchester. At the Maguire Unit, we have been teaching people to facilitate communication skills training since the 1990s.

We have distilled everything we have learned into our new Train the Trainer programme, offering advanced facilitation for communication skills trainers.

If you’re thinking of signing up to the Maguire Train the Trainer course but you want to know a bit more about it, you can read more about the benefits here.

How the Train the Trainer course can help with communication skills training

We will be refreshing some of the core theories and methods underpinning adult professional learning and thinking about the elements of course design and delivery that make sure the learning is relevant, engaging, and most importantly transferable back to practice.

And we will be digging deeper to explore the reasons why teaching communication and other interpersonal skills can be so challenging and to find out how we can facilitate a learning environment that is psychologically safe enough to really stretch and challenge the learners.

What’s involved?

Our new Train the Trainer course consists of 20 hours of flexible, online study and 5 2-hour sessions on Zoom, followed by a 3-day workshop here in Manchester.

Through our online sessions, we’ll cover a range of different themes on communication and soft skills training. We’ll discuss the presentations, provide time for reading and reflective activities and everyone will get to deliver a microteach session on a chosen theme or topic. In the workshop, we’ll take you through setting up and managing role play and how you can work through group dynamic issues.

You’ll have the opportunity to observe the first day of a 2-day advanced communications skills training course facilitated by a Maguire trainer via Zoom. This isn’t mandatory but will give you a gold-standard real-world demonstration of how to deliver communication skills training.

What’s more, on our online Train the Trainer course, you’ll get access to the Maguire Handbook, a comprehensive guide to evidence-based communication skills and strategies with a foundation in communication skills research. We’ll also give you a Maguire Train the Trainer Manual with sample course programmes, course content advice and guides to experiential teaching methods.

Who is the Train the Trainer course for?

Our Train the Trainer course is suitable for you if you are already an experienced trainer or educator. This must also be a significant part of your day-to-day role.

You’ll also need to have been on an advanced communication skills training course in the last 5 years or have an equivalent qualification (for example a master’s module or counselling qualification). 

Lastly, you’ll need to have a professional background in health or social care – so if you’re already working in the NHS or community care sector, the Train the Trainer course could help you gain the skills you need to deliver advanced communication courses. 

To sign up for any of our courses, including Train the Trainer, visit our Maguire portfolio of courses page. You can also watch a video about Train the Trainer to hear more about the course.