The Facilitator Training Programme was originally conceived as an intensive training programme of a small group of facilitators, in a blended mode, in order to prepare them for the development and delivery of the student auditor training programme that prepares students for completing a university social responsibility (USR) audit through the ESSA Project.  Development of the programme was led during the Erasmus+ funded project by the University of Porto.

The Facilitator Training Programme was originally developed to be delivered in three different but interconnected phases (online pre-course, face-to-face training week and online post-course), incorporating methodological guidance on promoting reflective experiential learning amongst students completing the auditor training.  The pedagogical strategies focused on during the training mirrored those adopted in the Auditor Training Programme.  These include promoting group work, debate, problem resolution, and individual reflection, balanced with structured coverage of new content by the trainers.

The resource available here sees the training materials reconfigured as a manual for self-guided completion by potential facilitators, though could of course be used to guide the delivery of face-to-face training.  Elements of the training include:

• Identification of learning objectives and perspectives on social responsibility
• Maintaining an individual training journal
• Concept of university social responsibility
• Concept of benchmarking
• Social responsibility audit approaches
• Pedagogical preparation for the student auditor training

Download the Facilitator Training Manual here.