Training & qualifications

Training that changes how you handle the hard stuff

From a single day that changes how you handle a difficult conversation, to an internationally accredited mediation qualification. Thirty years of practice behind every course.

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Browse the courses

Book a place

Open to individuals, with published dates through the year, in person or online. Book a single seat — you do not need a group.

Upcoming dates

Every open course date currently on sale. Booking is handled through Ticket Tailor — the button takes you straight to that date.

22 September 2026Workplace Conflict ManagementBelfast Castle£295Book a place
8 October – 26 November 2026Mediation Theory & PracticeMediation House£1,850Book a place
13 – 27 November 2026Principled NegotiationMediation House£695Book a place
21 January – 11 March 2027Mediation Theory & PracticeOnline (Zoom)£1,850Book a place
23 February 2027Constructive Professional DialogueBelfast Castle£295Book a place
23 March 2027Workplace Conflict ManagementBelfast Castle£295Book a place

Longer qualifications run across several weeks rather than consecutive days. Need a date that is not here, or the course for your own group? Ask us.

Run it for your team

Every course we run, and every one of them can be delivered to a single group in your own setting or online, shaped around the people in the room. That includes the courses with public dates above — booking a seat and booking the course for your own group are two different things.

Day counts are our own approximation at six guided hours a day and are indicative only. The exact shape of a course is agreed with you.

Who it is for

19 courses

Skills courses

7 courses

One to three days · CPD or OCN accredited

A complete course on a single subject. No prerequisites, and no need to take anything else afterwards.

1 daySkills courseConstructive Professional DialogueThe conversation most people avoid, done well. One day on raising a hard subject with a colleague and keeping the working relationship intact.£295per personBook a place 1 daySkills courseWorkplace Conflict ManagementHandle a disagreement at work before it becomes a grievance. One day on reading the situation, having the conversation, and knowing when to escalate.£295per personBook a place 2 daysSkills courseAwareness of Conflict and Hate CrimeRecognising hate crime, understanding its impact on a community, and knowing what to do about it.Also run as Hate Crime and Harassment AwarenessIn-houseby arrangementEnquire 3 daysSkills courseEffective Leadership SkillsLeading a group, a committee or a project when nobody reports to you and everything runs on goodwill.Also run as Community Leadership SkillsIn-houseby arrangementEnquire 3 daysSkills courseIntroduction to Conflict Resolution and Mediation SkillsThe accredited grounding in mediation skills, for people already resolving things in their own community.In-houseby arrangementEnquire 3 daysSkills courseIntroduction to Labour MobilityMigration and the labour market: recruitment, integration, rights, and building a workforce that holds together.In-houseby arrangementEnquire 2 modulesSkills courseAdversity, Trauma and Resilience AwarenessAdversity, trauma and resilience — including the legacy of conflict and how it carries down generations.In-houseby arrangementEnquire

Qualifications

9 courses

Three days and up · OCN accredited

Each carries its own OCN accreditation and its own outcomes. They do not run in sequence — take whichever fits.

3 daysQualificationPrincipled NegotiationNegotiate on the merits rather than by position or personality. Three days building to an accredited award, with live practice throughout.£695per personBook a place 5 daysQualificationConflict Analysis and Practical Mediation SkillsFive days of Level 3 practice: reading a conflict in its context, then mediating it with people who have to live alongside each other afterwards.In-houseby arrangementEnquire 8 daysQualificationMediation Theory & PracticeThe full practitioner qualification. Eight days of theory, supervised practice and assessment, and the route to mediating professionally.£1,850per personBook a place 3 daysQualificationContentious Issues: Identity and Cultural ExpressionParades, flags, emblems and bonfires — working with cultural expression where it is contested.In-houseby arrangementEnquire 3 daysQualificationRestorative ParentingRestorative approaches inside family life — repairing relationships rather than issuing consequences.In-houseby arrangementEnquire 3 daysQualificationUnderstanding Citizenship and IdentityWhat citizenship and identity mean here, and how to hold a conversation about them without it going wrong.In-houseby arrangementEnquire 3 daysQualificationUnderstanding Good Relations and Civic LeadershipThe practice of good relations work, and what civic leadership asks of the people who take it on.In-houseby arrangementEnquire 3 daysQualificationUnderstanding a Decade of Centenaries and its ImpactCommemoration, contested history, and how anniversaries land differently across a divided place.In-houseby arrangementEnquire 10 or 20 daysQualificationCommunity Relations, Equality and Diversity in Youth Work PracticeA full OCN NI Award (10 credits) or Certificate (20 credits) covering equity and diversity, prejudice and discrimination, equality and human rights, and the facilitation, leadership and mediation skills to deliver community relations work with young people.In-houseby arrangementEnquire

Speciality

3 courses

Qualification required · OCN accredited

Advanced practice. The only courses with an entry requirement: recognised training already behind you.

6 daysSpecialityAdvanced Group Work SkillsAdvanced group work for community settings — the skills for meetings where feeling runs high.Also run as Advanced Facilitation and Group WorkIn-houseby arrangementEnquire 6 daysSpecialityGroup & Systemic Mediation PracticeAdvanced practice for experienced mediators: multi-party disputes, systemic thinking, and conflict that runs through a whole team or organisation rather than between two people.In-houseby arrangementEnquire In developmentSpecialityCommunity Restorative PracticesRestorative practice at community level. Currently in development at Levels 2 and 3.In-houseby arrangementEnquire

Enquire about in-house training

Tell us about the group, roughly how many people, and what you want them to walk away with. We will come back with dates and a cost, and say plainly if a different course fits better.

Would rather talk it through? Book a 30-minute call.

What it costs

Two ways to buy: a seat on an open course, or a whole course delivered to your group at a day rate.

Open courses

£295–£1,850per person

Published dates through the year, in person or online. Book a single seat; you do not need a group.

In-house, non-accredited

£2,000per day

CPD and non-accredited courses delivered to your own group.

In-house, OCN accredited

£2,500per day

Accredited qualifications, with learners registered and assessed through OCN Northern Ireland.

One rate, wherever it happens. The day rate is the same whether we deliver at Mediation House, at your own premises anywhere in Northern Ireland, or online.

Discounts. Public sector 12.5%. Charities and community groups 25%. Applied to the day rate, and to open course places.

We are a charity, not a free service. We are a charity, but we are not a free service. Our work is paid for — by an employer, an individual, a community organisation or a funder. Where a specific programme is funded so that taking part costs you nothing, that is stated on the programme itself.

Trusted by

Free tools from the courses

Four short videos, each teaching one module out of one of our courses in full. They are genuinely useful on their own — use them, share them with your team, and come to the course if you want the rest.

The Response Spectrum

Every response to a conflict at work sits somewhere on a spectrum, from walking away at one end to a tribunal at the other. Knowing where you are on it, and what the next option along actually costs, is usually the whole decision.

From Workplace Conflict Management

Conflict Styles

Most people default to the same one or two responses under pressure, and their default is invisible to them. Naming the five styles is the quickest way to see your own, and to stop reading someone else’s as bad faith.

From Constructive Professional Dialogue

The Drama Triangle

Victim, rescuer, persecutor — three roles that a stuck negotiation keeps rotating people through. Karpman’s triangle explains why helping sometimes makes things worse, and how to step off it.

From Principled Negotiation

The Conflict Puzzle

A framework for taking a conflict apart before you try to fix it: the people, the problem, the process and the history. Mediators use it to work out what they are actually dealing with.

From Mediation Theory & Practice

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What the accreditation means

We’ve been an Open College Network approved centre since 2002, so our qualification courses carry a recognised award rather than an attendance note.

Mediation Theory & Practice is also accredited by the International Mediation Institute — which means the qualification is recognised internationally, not just in Northern Ireland. Very few providers here can say that.