Syllabus

• Week 1

  An Introduction to Individual Placement and Support (IPS)

  • What comes first, employment or better mental health?

    Meet your educators and explore what you will learn on the course.

  • What does an Employment Specialist do?

    Understand the 8 principles of IPS, how you can implement them as an Employment Specialist, and how the course will guide you through real life examples that you might encounter in your work.

  • What difference will I make?

    Explore the difference that employment can make it to someone's health, and hear recovery stories from real IPS clients.

• Week 2

  Integration with the Clinical Team

  • What is integration with a clinical team?

    Learn about the different members of a clinical team, hear from Employment Specialists about how they are integrated with their clinical team, and reflect on how your clinical team is structured.

  • Being the employment champion

    Understand how to promote employment in the team, "bust" any myths around it, and think about how to overcome challenges you might face.

  • Finding your voice

    Hear tips from Employment Specialists on how to find your own style of integration and build your own toolkit of resources to help you integrate with the clinical team.

• Week 3

  Building a relationship with your client to find the ideal job match

  • How to build rapport with clients

    Understand methods for rapport building, including active listening, motivational interviewing, how to set boundaries with clients and prepare to manage challenging situations.

  • How to create and use Employment Profiles

    Understand what an Employment Profile is, how it can help with job matching, hear top tips from employment specialists in how to complete one, and practise completing a profile.

  • Identifying strengths, skills and barriers

    Learn how to identify strengths and skills, practise identifying these on an example client, and discuss strategies for overcoming potential barriers to employment.

  • Finding the right job match for your client

    Understand why job matching is important, hear tips from Employment Specialists on how to find the right job match, and practise finding a suitable job match for an example client.

• Week 4

  Unlocking the right job for your client: Employer Engagement

  • Introduction to Employer Engagement

    Understand what employer engagement is, why it is important, and what the benefits to employers are.

  • How do you unlock the job market?

    Understand the best methods for researching and finding jobs, how to find hidden jobs that are not advertised online, and how to research an employer in preparation for your first meeting.

  • How to have a positive meeting with employers

    Learn how to build rapport with employers, develop a pitch to sell your service, prepare positive responses to combat negativity, and prepare to practise employer engagement.

• Week 5

  Supporting your client to get a job offer

  • How to action plan to get a job

    Understand how to create an action plan with SMART targets, practise creating an action plan to help your client get a job, and access top tips and resources to help you.

  • How to disclose mental health

    Understand the importance of supporting your clients to consider whether to disclose their mental health, legal protections that exist, and reasonable adjustments that might be considered.

  • How to create a strong CV and prepare for interviews

    Practise helping your clients to create a strong CV and personal statement and plan for the practicalities of attending an interview.

• Week 6

  Supporting clients to sustain their employment

  • Introduction to time unlimited support

    Learn the different stages of employment support and why time-unlimited support is important to helping your clients stay well in work.

  • In-work support

    Discover tools to help your clients stay well in work, including making wellness plans, building support around the client and understanding your role in ongoing job support.

  • Stepping down support

    Learn how to step down your support, whilst making sure that your client feels supported and empowered to sustain their job.

• Week 7

  What is fidelity, why does it matter, and how do I achieve it?

  • The fidelity philosophy

    Learn what fidelity is, why it is important and how it can be a tool to help you to deliver the best outcomes for your clients.

  • Fidelity in practice

    Learn how to prepare for a fidelity review, how to complete a self-assessment and how to create an action plan based on your learnings to improve your practice.

  • Improving fidelity

    Learn what happens after you've gone through a fidelity review; how to identify areas that need improvement and start to take actions to improve fidelity.