Arrangements for public speaking workshops

In both our ‘Speak out for change’ and ‘Talk about respect’ projects on public speaking skills for active citizenship, the provision of workshops for students from external expert providers has broadly proved to be a very popular and valuable feature – and we are asking that all partner colleges continue to build such workshops into project plans for 2015/16.

However, following careful consideration of the discussions we had at our meeting in June about the workshops run in 2014/15, we are making some changes to the arrangements – designed to give you more flexibility in the choice of a workshop provider.

As before ACFE will meet the actual cost of one public speaking workshop for each college (to last a minimum of two and a half hours) – subject to a maximum amount of £400. However, for the year ahead, we ask that – in order to make the changed arrangements work smoothly – each college will pay their chosen provider’s fee and then claim reimbursement of the cost from us (attaching a copy of the provider’s invoice).

Also as before college partners are entirely at liberty to commission further workshop sessions – with costs met from the regular project grant.

Some possible options for workshop facilitation to explore:

·  You may wish to approach the trainer we worked with last year – Maggie Sawkins:

Tel: 00 44 (0)7960371574

·  Another possibility could be to work with Speakers Trust – with whom we’ve had successful collaborations in the past.

The person to make enquiries with at Speakers Trust is Victoria Costello:

Tel: 0845 862 0444 / 020 7922 7902 / 07714137653

If you decide to approach Speakers Trust please use the booking form provided on the project partners page of our website.

Also, please note that Speakers Trust may not be able to provide a trainer in some parts of the country. Currently they are best equipped to cover London and the South East, but hope to extend their range of trainers in other regions in the coming months.

·  Alternatively, you may know of another organisation you would like to provide a workshop for your students – or you may prefer to have someone within your own college to facilitate a workshop session. For such an internal solution you will be able to claim reimbursement from us on the same basis as for an external provider (attaching details of costs with breakdown of staff time and session outline).

Of course we’ll be very happy to talk over these arrangements – and possible options - further with you at any time.