Innovative Vocational Training
Waypoint has a long-established track record for high quality, innovative vocational training that promotes excellence in working with a range of vulnerable groups
Our Latest News
Nature is a consistent and constant teacher, if only we would be receptive learners!
Our increasing separation from the rest of the natural world, both physically and emotionally, has enabled a particular story of how life works to be told.
It’s a story of homogenised linear progression, of milestones and achievements, which are a measure and mark of our value and usefulness in society. So powerful are these markers that children can be labelled as failures because they haven’t attained the prescribed levels for their year group.
It feeds an idea that if we don’t get things right now, then the rest of our lives are doomed.
However, take a walk in a woodland, and observe the variety and eccentricity of plants growing there. Allow the tenacity of a tiny seedling which has found itself in a small crack of a stone wall, and yet is growing, to inspire you. Be intrigued at that branch on the pine tree, which was going along in a nice horizontal fashion, and then suddenly started to grow up at a ninety degree angle.
Marvel at the eclectic collection of colours and textures and shapes, each living thing finding its own way to move and respond to the conditions it finds itself in. Acknowledge that you too are doing the same…seeking out the best way you can of moving with life.
Its hard not to get sucked into the idea that to be a success means having the biggest and best and most of everything money can buy. After all we are constantly bombarded by advertising which tells us so.
Maybe true life success though is something much more subtle. Kindness, generosity and gratitude, just keeping going when life feels insurmountable and hopeless, pausing to ask “what’s the most helpful way I could respond right now?”, or “what’s the best I can do right now to keep myself well?” when you feel confused or challenged.
Maybe success can be accepting our inability to change things for other people who are struggling with life; perhaps by letting go of our struggle to make things better we become free to use our energy on supporting them to live with what is.
What we offer
Open Courses
Our open courses provide an opportunity for individuals or very small groups to book on courses. View course explorer
Bespoke Training
We are keen to tailor training to your specific context, so that you can meet the needs of the people you work with. Find out more
Who Is It For?
Waypoint Training offers learning solutions for everyone. From our roots, as the Sheffield Alcohol Advisory Services, we are now embedded within the charity – Project 6 – to continue our support of vulnerable people with complex needs. We have since evolved into a non-geographical and non-substance specific training service.
You deliver with practised ease and this gives the learner reassurance and confidence. No question went unanswered, nothing unexplained.
Course Attendee
Relapse Prevention for the 21st Century
Featured Training
Uncovering The Story
This knowledge-based course explores new developments in explaining how, to a greater or lesser extent, we cope and make sense of the struggles we face.
Skills for Uncovering the Story
This skills-based course will help you to help people tell their story and make sense of their emotional distress, troubled and troubling behaviour. Your will
The Spirit of Compassionate Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing is a potent, evidence-based approach for working with people with troubling behaviour who do not yet see the need for change. Whilst around
FAQs
We are attentive to what’s going on for our learners and always encourage them to be up front with us about what they need. We model what we teach so you can expect a compassionate, collaborative and safe response from us. This is tailored to the person so varies widely.
We would offer ongoing emotional support as suited to your progression with us on a course, whether it’s specific learning needs, confidence, motivation or anxiety and would help you access additional support if needed. You are always welcome to contact us in advance if you want to discuss your particular needs. We will always try to flag up if a section of a course might be more upsetting for some people.
We offer a range of courses relating to personal development and actively encourage a diversity of experiences. Often people who use services want to see what it’s like “from the inside” and are interested to understand a little more formally what the various approaches might have been that they experienced while accessing a service so we’d encourage that (again, if suitable for the individual).
Sometimes, it can be a little unsettling for staff to have people who use services on the same training as them and we make it clear is a course might not be suitable for a given individual. The best thing to do is talk to us if you’re considering this.
Occasionally we get funding to cover costs so it’s worth keeping an eye out on our website. Generally, we are unable to source costs for individuals. They might be able to claim expenses from your own organisation of course.
Oh, yes. We send out attendance certificates at the end of the course. If it’s an accredited course, you’ll get a fancy certificate (or two!) from the Awarding Body.
Several courses are accredited – see the Accredited Courses section for details.
You will never have to disclose anything you do not wish to disclose and we will ensure no pressure is put on you to do so. A key way we learn, however, is to draw on our own experiences and all our courses will ask you to think about how you make sense of some ideas or ways of behaving that we’ve been discussing.
You’ll be invited to share your thoughts sometimes in pairs or small groups and we often have whole group discussions where, again, you would be welcome to explore your ideas. We know that training can be a bit scary sometimes and we do our utmost to get the level of challenge just right for everyone. This means we might have different approaches with different people on different occasions.
Only in the Caribbean or New Zealand. (Just kidding!) Give us a call and we’d love to work out what’s best. Online courses can generally be easily accessed from abroad.
For skills-based course, we keep the ratio of 12 learners to one trainer. We often train larger groups with a suitable number of trainers. If it’s not a skills-based course, we tend to limit it to 20 but training can be very successful with very large groups and so we adjust the learning activities to suit the size of the group.
