Did you know that as a Social Worker, Social Service Worker, or other Paraprofessional that you have knowledge valuable outside of your day job? It’s true! Social workers often learn a variety of transferable skills that are in demand in the corporate world and among other nonprofits, and with a little know-how, you can leverage that training to improve your own income.
As a program manager working on a crisis line, I had the opportunity to build evaluation programs and write outcome reports that demonstrated the value of that service – as well as train others to do this. It turns out, there are a lot of people out there who would like to brush up on their statistics, data analysis, and evaluation skills. If you have these skills, you can do training sessions ranging from 45 minutes “Lunch and Learns”, all the way up to full day sessions.
Train-the-Trainer
As the Online Text and Chat (ONTX) Facilitator at Distress and Crisis Ontario, I trained the program managers who went back to their agencies and trained volunteers to provide crisis intervention through their computer and over the phone.
You can build a Train-the-Trainer program too if you have in-demand skills. For example, as an organization working with women exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV), you may develop a training program for your volunteers that focuses on communication skills, advocacy skills, working with women in crisis, and defusing conflict. You can package that training and use it to help train people who want to launch their own IPV organization in a part of the state or country that doesn’t have one.
The QPR Institute has a Train-the-Trainer (T4T) for their QPR Suicide Awareness Program. The T4T costs $500 and allows you to charge participants about $20 each for the 2-hour training. LivingWorks safeTALK T4T costs $1000 and allows you to charge participants about $50 each for the 3-hour training, while LivingWorks Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) costs $2500 – but allows you to charge $100-300 per participant.
E-Learning
E-Learning is an under-used training technique in the nonprofit world, and that can be to your benefit as well. Record yourself delivering a training session and sell access on a subscription or one-time basis. Your content will be mostly “evergreen” meaning you don’t need to update the sessions that frequently, but you can continue to bring in subscribers or new users. Offer a certificate of completion for those who complete a quiz or test at the end, and build a library.
Virtually any training you want to deliver in person can be delivered in an e-learning format – if not via an asynchronous format (where someone logs in and watches videos), then in a digital classroom environment.
Moodle is one of the most common free e-learning platforms, but requires a fair amount of technical know-how. On the other hand, WordPress (a blogging platform) is a lot easier to set up and can be modified with “plugins” to add membership, subscription, and other features necessary to build an e-learning program. If you’re someone with knowledge of these programs (like me) you can also do training on how to set up training programs!
Custom Training
Finally, you can develop your own custom training for corporations and other nonprofits. Distress Centre Ottawa conducts training sessions on communication skills and delivers them to the many government agencies in that area.
As a Social Worker, you can develop your own training. Example topics could include:
- Having Difficult Conversations
- Crisis Intervention for non-Social Workers
- Building Rapport for Salespeople
Conclusion
Do you facilitate your own training? Whether or not you work in private practice, consider it as a way to expand your skills, improve the capacity of local nonprofits and your community, and to continue networking.
