Course Background
Peer Mentoring is a course developed by the Larkin Centre to support adult learning within the community. Learners who participate in community education and training come to these settings from a variety of backgrounds and with a range of needs. In this context having local people who have already “walked in these shoes” to support and act as learning supports to these potential new learners, can help enhance the capacity of education programmes to respond to individual needs. The Peer mentoring course offers experienced learners the opportunity to further their professional development and gain a recognised qualification to work as peer mentors in their communities.
Course Objective
This course is designed to offer participants the opportunity to inform and build a set of practices to facilitate their work as peer mentors to adult learners in the community. This course introduces participants to some of the principles, ideas and guidelines concerning how adults learn, helping approaches, ways of communicating effectively and interacting with people, combined with the development of the skills, knowledge and ways of working needed to deliver a quality peer mentoring session. The course enables participants to identify their own qualities and abilities and strengthen areas they have noted as requiring further self-development.
Course Structure
The course is delivered over 25 weeks, and class duration will be approximately 2.5 hrs. The approach to learning that is promoted in this course is experiential, each participant is encouraged to share and discuss their experiences. This open approach is very important because it’s a way of ensuring that the views, ideas and know-how of each participant becomes part of and contribute to the shared learning experience of all.
The course will examine key aspects of peer mentoring and will include the following topics:
Unit 1 Understanding Peer Mentoring in Community Education
looks at what Peer Mentoring is all about and the concept of helping approaches.
Unit 2 Community Education & Adult Learning
examines how learning is experienced in community education, looking briefly at theory and introduce some of the people who have been influential in community education practice, as well as investigating different learning styles
Unit 3 Peer Relationship Skills
explores how we relate and interact with others, attitudes, values, listening skills, build trust and respect confidentiality, how we manage difficult situations and conflicts
Unit 4 Devising, Delivering & Reviewing a Peer Mentoring Intervention
is putting into practice what has been learned in Units 1-3
In the exploration of each of the units the focus will be on, connecting the ideas and practices that are put forward to situations that are familiar to all. The course looks at different examples of people interactions, drawing on TV and film footage with follow up discussions to explore what’s good or not good. The course also creates opportunities during the sessions for participants to put their ideas into practice and in so doing fine tune their skills and knowledge.
Course Accreditation
FETAC accreditation at level 5 is provided and comprises the following assessment criteria:-
Skills demonstration 50%
Assignment 25%
Learner Record 25%
In order for participants to satisfy assessment requirements, a minimum of 90% class attendance is required.
Some of the participants who received their FETAC Level 5 Certificates in Peer Mentoring in Community Education. June 2009 |
We
provide our jobclub services in
Polish 
