Consent Sexual Violence & Harassment: Practitioner Skills & Practice - Micro-credential

The Micro-credential supports practitioners, researchers, and advocates with an interest in these areas to further develop their approach to consent, sexual violence and harassment – by reflecting on and addressing organisational culture, critically thinking about institutional structures and processes, and via targeted initiatives.

Many of the strategies and skills called for by policies such as the Consent Framework are innovative, bringing an associated need for support for professional development. We are therefore learning together, and people working in the area will be well served by developing a ‘learning community’ that can mutually support a ‘best practice’ model.

While the content will specifically target the higher education and post-primary sectors, we welcome participants who are working in areas such as youth work, community organisations, the Defence Forces, An Garda Síochána, etc.

Sexual consent, sexual violence and harassment (SVH) are critical issues in educational settings. This module equips participants to design and support student engagement and organisational development, through coverage of areas such as:

Critical understanding of consent and SVH.

Designing, implementing, supporting and evaluating consent and SVH programmes.

Skills for training, workshop facilitation, collaboration and group work.

Policy, guidelines, and frameworks.

Principles of organisational culture change.

Communication/interpersonal skills.

Interpersonal skills to support receiving a disclosure.

The Micro-credential will support participants to achieve or extend relevant knowledge & skills and provide an opportunity to share and discuss their learning. It is envisaged that participants will have a range of experiences and backgrounds – for instance, in student services, college administration, counselling and wellbeing, academic programme management and research, and agencies/organisations relevant to education and research. The module team will provide a clear structure and framework for your learning, encourage you to identify the specific areas you wish to focus on and support these paths, working together with all module participants as respected partners to promote a learning community to share knowledge and problem-solving capacity.

The Micro-credential covers three main topic areas:

Designing, supporting, and evaluating education and development programmes on consent, sexual violence and harassment for students and staff.

Supporting organisational change through staff development, training in receiving disclosures, and acting as a resource for organisational culture and climate change.

Developing policies and best practice to underpin institutional and procedural change.

The Micro-credential is led by the Active* Consent programme. Delivery is a partnership between Active* Consent, Galway Rape Crisis Centre and other partner organisations and experts, drawing on the expertise and experience of each partner to deliver a unique learning experience. The Active* Consent team will coordinate the Micro-credential and participants will be registered as postgraduate students with University of Galway for a 10 ECTS module.

Applicants must be over 21 years of age.

A Level 8 undergraduate, or Level 7 qualification with 3 years experience is required.

Applications can be considered using Recognition of Prior Learning.

Applicants must currently be engaged in a relevant setting where there is an opportunity to engage in the review and planning of initiatives relevant to the ‘Consent Framework’ or similar initiatives on consent/SVH.

As part of the application process for this Micro-credential, learners will be required to provide and upload a short personal statement detailing why they want to take the course (500 words max).

Please fill in the online application form. If you have any queries, please email: eva.obyrne@universityofgalway.ie

12 weeks.

The module will be delivered online via zoom for all classes, with one in-person session. This will involve online seminars and workshops.

Direct class interaction will be complemented by the use of the Blackboard virtual learning environment, supported through engaging eLearning content delivery strategies such as recorded interviews, and pre-recorded content, videos, workshops, guest speakers, and guided activities.

Academic Year 2024/25, Semester TBC