Factual Knowledge, "Hard Facts":

Factual knowledge is the basis for a successful working performance in the field.

It is necessary to provide participants with factual knowledge, which creates a common ground and common informational standard of the participants.

Interactive Information Sharing:

•  A Reader is given to the participants preceding the training. It contains basic articles related to the training.

•  As learning results from the stimulation of senses, informative lectures are processed by the use of audio-visual means (e.g. flip charts, videos, tapes, overhead, PowerPoint presentations, DVD).

•  The informative lectures provide sufficient space for interactive discussions, which allows participants to bring in their own experiences and knowledge and helps participants to clarify perceptions.

•  The information is partly acquired by the participants themselves through interactive group exercises.

•  Participants are provided with handouts, compiling the information transferred.

Psycho-Social Competence, "Soft Skills"

In order to appropriately implement factual knowledge in the field, psycho-social competence and personal attitudes, which determine the relationships between individuals, need to be developed. The importance of team work, proper handling of stress, cultural sensitivity, openness, flexibility, tolerance, respect, empathy, creativity and non-violence needs to be addressed.

Integration and Reflection

•  Integration of all participants and trainers on an equal level encourages a climate of mutual trust, respect, and co-operative team work. It allows to capitalise on the experiences of all participants and trainers.

•  Social events outside the seminar room are used as an effective supportive mean for integrating all participants.

•  The environment, in which the training takes place, guarantees tranquillity, and encourages participants to fully concentrate on the training. It further supports team building mechanisms also outside the seminar room.

•  Flexibility is guaranteed in the training. Participants` individual training needs are integrated in a flexible manner, in this sense the trainers serve as facilitators. This helps to stimulate the necessary dynamics between the participants.

•  Participants are challenged to move to increasingly advanced stages of personal development. The principle method of adult learning is the reflection of personal development through self-assessment of progress and success.

Practical Implementation Tools:

The effective implementation of tasks is only possible with factual knowledge and certain attitudes. The successful combination of "hard facts" and "soft skills" is translated into practical implementation tools.

Complex Interactive Exercises:

•  Interactive exercises are well suited for demonstrating the complexity of situations and allow a relevancy-oriented approach, which underlines the applicability to the participants` work and tasks.

•  Complex interactive exercises include role-plays, case studies and simulations.

•  Such exercises foster the participants` capability of creative conflict resolution. During the exercises participants have to break down general tasks into concrete steps while considering the overall picture and setting. This helps the participants to understand the interdependencies of actions and reactions.

•  Interactive exercises are accompanied by feedback and debriefing, which allow the participants to share their experiences and findings.

•  Specifically case studies include "lessons learned" focus on the elaboration and implementation of improvements.

•  Complex interactive exercises compile the training content and challenge participants to apply all information gathered and skills learned at once. According to participants personal strengths and weaknesses the lessons learned are placed on a very individual basis.