Workplace Mediation Training - what has changed in 9 years?

As a professional mediator I’m often asked which courses I would recommend for people wanting to train as workplace mediators. It’s a really tricky one as there are many options and how would you start choosing between them. Plus I don’t have personal experience of the courses other than the one that I did for my own training. Nonetheless I like to help so back in 2012 I thought I’d put together a list of mediation training courses and a paper with some thoughts on factors to consider when making your choice. The courses were ‘full mediation training’, typically involving 5 days of training and mostly with some form of accreditation.

Over the years I have updated my listing intermittently and have just completed the most recent update. It is interesting now to compare the current list with the first one I did 9 years ago. These are my observations:

 Suppliers

• Around half of the suppliers have made it to the current listing. The remainder have dropped off the list for various reasons – closed down completely, no longer offering open courses, now only doing commercial mediation etc.
• Suppliers surviving from the original list are either large general mediation / training organisations (CEDR, ADR Group) or smaller specialist suppliers focusing on workplace mediation and training (CMP, UK Mediation, Consensio etc.). General training organisations like Regents College are no longer represented.
• There are some new entrants – primarily smaller specialist suppliers such as Pragmatism UK and Essential Mediation Solutions

 Pricing

• There is still great variation in terms of cost of training. Back in 2012 the gap between highest and lowest cost courses was over £4500 – now it is down to around £3800 but that is still a massive gap. The most expensive course (CEDR) is nearly 4 times more expensive than the cheapest options.
• Overall course prices are generally lower than they were 9 years ago. That might sound surprising but it is indicative of the competitive nature of the market. The biggest price drop is from UK Mediation which is 17% cheaper than in 2012.

 CMC affiliation

• The Civil Mediation Council is the primary trade body for mediators in the UK. Over the years it is has tightened its rules on who can join as a Registered Mediator. Now you must have completed a course with one of its registered suppliers which have to meet specific requirements.
• As in 2012 several of the training suppliers have chosen not to have their courses registered by the CMC. These are primarily the established workplace mediation training suppliers such as UK Mediation, Consensio and TCM Group. This is a factor for potential trainees to consider and is definitely a question they should put to potential suppliers.

It is difficult to assess if anything has changed in terms of course content. I think it is unlikely – apart from one obvious element, online mediation. Given the changes enforced by the pandemic, online mediation is now commonplace compared to 2012 when few suppliers would have been offering it. So training will now incorporate remote delivery of mediation as well as face to face. Likewise, delivery of the training itself is now available at least partly online, though often the assessment element is required to be face to face.

So which training would I recommend? That’s not something I can do as I’ve no personal experience of any of the courses other than my own training with CEDR. What I can say is that there are several good suppliers offering excellent training but they are all slightly different – speak to the suppliers and pick a course that meets your specific needs and with trainers that you feel comfortable with.

If you would like a copy of the list of mediation training courses and the paper on selecting a course feel free to contact us.