Report on training sessions held at RACC to promote HIV awareness

As a result of Darrell Bate's project work with the CVS, RACC were offered the services of two facilitators to run some training sessions at RACC on HIV awareness. They were funded by the DfES as part of a project called Positive Education. Cass Mann and Martin Weaver, the two facilitators, are both very experienced professionals in the field of HIV/AIDS. Cass Mann is the founder and CEO of the world's longest established holistic gay men's HIV/AIDS charity and has successfully completed a £1 million five-year HIV/AIDS project for the European Commission. Martin Weaver is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, author and media writer and has been employed for the last 15 years by numerous regional health authorities and the South West London HIV/AIDS and GUM Commissioning Consortium.

It was agreed that they would run three training sessions at Clifden and Parkshot centres each of 90 minutes duration. 18 members of staff attended the sessions representing front-line staff i.e. Registry, LISA and Learning centres, one or two academic staff from each of the faculties and various business support staff and managers from Human Resources, Health & Safety, Community Outreach etc. All attendees agreed to disseminate information gathered at the sessions to their team or section. A booklet regarding Positive Education and some case studies were distributed to all attendees before the events so that they would be prepared for a frank and open discussion on HIV and education. A NIACE representative attended the final training session to monitor the procedure.

16 evaluation forms were completed by attendees where they were asked to grade the training session against specific criteria from grade 1 (highest) to 4 (lowest). Comments were invited and any suggestions that staff might have for follow-up training. 75% of responses to the questions graded at grade 1 with 25% at grade 2. No grades 3 or 4 were registered. Comments were as follows:

• Useful session
• I feel more confident to deal with questions and find more information
• Thought provoking
• Very well led session
• Case studies work very interesting
• Very informative and interesting
• Well done and thanks to Martin and Cass
• Excellent training from very knowledgeable trainers
• Stimulating
• Useful strategies discussed
• Slightly leader dominated towards the end
  

Some staff felt that 90 minutes was not long enough to discuss everything and wanted the facilitators to be invited back to work with more of the staff, especially academic, to ensure that everyone is made aware of the challenges that HIV/AIDS (and other health problems) could bring to College. But overall feeling seems to be that the sessions were well led and very useful to the staff concerned.

Elaine Petruccetti
Professional Development Manager
06.01.03