Facilitation is becoming a crucial skill in times of digital and hybrid collaboration. Whether you're looking to get started or want to ramp up your existing skills, hands-on training can be a lever to take action and develop effective facilitation skills.
This article represents some of the best facilitation training courses out there and compares their learning outcomes, price and audience.
Here are the courses we’ll cover:
Facilitator Masterclass is a 6-week cohort-based course, that teaches the fundamental facilitation skills to lead productive and engaging meetings and workshops. The course brings together both key facilitation skills and designing digital collaboration.
[.box-highlight]Note: You can now sign up for the waitlist for Facilitator Masterclass 6 in Spring 2023.[.box-highlight]
Quick Overview:
- Price: €995 EUR
- Format: Fully online
- Size: Max 20 participants
- Tools: MIRO, Zoom
- Duration: 6 weeks
How does the Facilitator Masterclass work?
The course spans over 6 weeks. At the start of each week, you will receive 3-4 video lessons that you can watch in your own time. Then once per week, we are going to have a 2-hour live online class, where we are doing hands-on exercises and discussions to sharpen your facilitation skills. The course gradually builds up to the capstone project, a small online workshop that you can run in your own work environment.
Who is it for?
The Facilitator Masterclass is designed to fit the schedules of busy, full-time professionals who work directly with other people. Participants are usually relatively new to facilitation and/or want to sharpen their digital facilitation skills. Possible roles include team leads, project managers, juniors, educators, innovators, coaches and creatives.
Facilitative Leadership Course is a 3-day course in Stockholm that teaches the skills and tools to lead teams. You’ll learn how to apply facilitation into leadership, navigate group dynamics and run productive group sessions for your team.
Quick Overview:
- Price: $2846 USD
- Format: On-Location in Stockholm
- Duration: 3 days
How does Hyper Island’s Facilitative Leadership Course work?
Hyper Island has a learning-by-doing approach, in 3 days you'll go through a range of different workshops and reflection sessions to integrate facilitation in your work context. You will develop yourself through regular feedback and grow your abilities as a team leader.
Who is it for?
Hyper Island states that the course is suitable for people who have experience in leading people and facilitating groups. The course is designed for those who want to dive deeper into different behavioural dynamics and the nature of diverse groups.
The Leading Groups Course is an 8-week course to learn how guide any group with confidence. Over the span of the course you’ll be equipped with the techniques, methodologies and mindset to shape and run gatherings of various types like meetings, workshops or events.
Quick Overview:
- Price: From €1875 EUR
- Format: Online / Offline / Hybrid
- Duration: 8 weeks
- Time Investment: 2,5h per week
- Size: 18 people
How does Mischief Maker’s Leading Groups Course work?
The 8-week course includes 7 live training sessions and 1 coaching call. You join the course from all over the world since it's a fully remote training. If you're based in/around Amsterdam, you can join selected sessions in person. All sessions will be hosted both live and with the online group.
Who is it for?
Mischief Makers states that the Leading Groups Course is made for everyone working with leadership and people. They call educators, project managers, team leads and L&D managers to join in, previous experience is not a must. From the information we could find, the course gives everyone who is in charge of guiding a group the skills and tools to facilitate.
Facilitator Certification Program is a cohort-based training that teaches you how to shape and run great design thinking sessions. You’ll learn to work with the LUMA System and apply the set of methods to design, plan and facilitate a session.
Quick Overview:
- Price: $2,900 USD
- Format: Fully online
- Size: Max 12 participants
- Tools: MURAL, Zoom, Microsoft PowerPoint online
How does LUMA's Facilitator Certification Program work?
The Facilitator Certification Program consists of learning, practice, and coaching sessions. You’ll start by building a solid facilitation fundament and continue to practice the new skills with a team. After completing the practise you’ll get 3 coaching sessions to guide you in your facilitation at work.
Who is it for?
Luma only mentions individuals and small teams on their website. Knowing Luma though they work a lot with large organisations so in our view it's very helpful for everyone who actively guides collaboration in a large organisation. Luma requires to do the Practitioner Certification Program first in order to become a Human-Centered Design Practitioner.
The Facilitator Certification program from Voltage Control is a 3-month program that will teach you the most important facilitation skills and provide opportunities to put those learnings into practice. You’ll be surrounded by other facilitators and receive feedback to improve your craft.
Quick Overview:
- Price: $5,000 USD
- Format: Fully Online
- Duration: 3 months
- Time Investment: 6-8h per week
How does Voltage Control’s Facilitator Certification Program work?
In the first month, participants learn the core competencies of facilitation, in the second month people select two self-paced courses to deepen their knowledge in fields such as Design Thinking or Liberating Structures. After completing both, students will be guided to create their professional facilitator portfolio, design their own sessions and create a plan for growth over the long term.
Who is it for?
Voltage Control states that the program is made for startup founders, consultants, executives, coaches, team leaders and trainers. Given the pricing and long term format of the program, we would estimate the training for anyone who wants to dive deep into facilitation and leave training with a professional facilitator portfolio.
