Effective Communication for Work Course

Overview

Do you find it hard to speak up in meetings or navigate workplace conflicts? Build your communication skills and gain practical strategies to ensure you are heard and engage more effectively with your colleagues.

In this course, you’ll learn to identify what makes effective communication and how to apply this to your meetings and your workplace. Based on research findings from the long-running Language in the Workplace Project, you’ll take away tips and techniques for effective communication based on real Aotearoa New Zealand case studies and conversations. 

In just 20 hours, you’ll improve your communication skills and be empowered to communicate more effectively in your workplace to improve productivity for you and your team. 

This course is ideal for

• People looking to develop stronger communication skills
• People who want to be more effective communicators in meetings
• Managers at all levels
• Team leaders and leaders of people
• Aspiring or emerging leaders
• People leading people in a voluntary capacity such as in a sports club or religious organisation 

What you'll learn

• How to increase the effectiveness of your meetings, and influence the decisions made around you .
• How to implement communication techniques to improve your relationships at work.
• How to implement practical strategies to manage conflict and navigate disagreements effectively.
• How to evaluate your own preconceptions of what a workplace “should” look like to maximise the value of diverse cultural input.

This course will empower you to analyse and improve your own communicative practices. The techniques will make use of research-based findings from the longstanding Language in the Workplace (LWP) project. This course will be most useful if you are testing what you learn in your own workplace/context.

Course outline

The course is divided into four modules you'll work your way through over the learning period. Each module includes specific learning objectives, educational content across a range of media, activities to apply what you've learnt, plus a 'temperature check' survey to make sure you're getting what you need as a learner. 

Module 1: Getting things done 
Understand how decisions are made in meetings and how to be more effective and productive in these scenarios. 

Module 2: Getting on with people
Recognise ways to get along with people at work by better communication and how to build better working relationships. 

Module 3: Managing the hard stuff
Recognise ways that communication can go wrong and conflict can arise. Learn how to mitigate these effects with better communication skills. 

Module 4: Working across cultures
Evaluate your own preconceptions around what workplace culture should look like and how to maximise value of diversity in the workplace. 

Assessments
All assessments are self-assessments and completion of the course is determined by completion of all the learning modules and the self-assessment activities. 

Requirements

There are no prerequisites for this course – it is open to anyone who has confidence listening, reading, and writing in English.

Technology requirements 

• We recommend a laptop or desktop computer and a reliable internet connection.
• A PDF reader (like Adobe Acrobat Reader DC) to download PDFs with assessment instructions.
• Word processing software (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs) to complete your assignments.

Course fees
Course fees must be paid before learning can begin, either via online credit-card payment, or by contacting info@uconline.ac.nz to request an invoice. Please note: fixed invoice payment dates apply, so we recommend getting in touch with us as soon as possible to request an invoice, as this option is subject to availability.

Group discounts
Get your colleagues together to take advantage of our group discounts: 

• 10% for 3 - 6 learners
• 15% for 7+ learners

Contact our Enrolment Support Team to learn more and enquire now.

Withdrawals and refunds
Once learning begins, you are eligible for a withdrawal with refund up until the end of day 3. After this date, refunds may be available if your circumstances are exceptional, for example if you've experienced a serious medical event.

Our people

Please note: our academic team develop and present video content within their courses, but are not always available to answer queries. Our learner experience team will be available to answer queries via support@uconline.ac.nz