Training and Development
Club activities centre around a speaking session which is part of the agenda of their regular meetings. Members who speak in these sessions, are offered feedback by a senior Club member who is usually referred as a “Critic” .
At Club level, additional Training sessions are provided by the
qualified Critics; also, members are encouraged to work
through several Personal Development Programs, at their own pace.
Training and development in Australian Rostrum is administered by Zone
(State) Training Councils, whose activities are coordinated by the
National Training and Development Officer.
The Australian Rostrum Council accredits its Critics, or members who
mentor other members, to strict standards. It also has a policy
of periodic re-accreditation of those Critics who practise outside
their own Clubs, with the thrust on their maintaining currency,
commitment and competency. The Council seeks national consistency
in the standards of Critic accreditation.
Through its training function, the Australian Rostrum Council publishes
a series of publications related to speaking, meeting management,
mentoring and training. It is now aiming to develop a National
Training Resource on the Rostrum website, in order to provide Rostrum
members with a library of all training and development material
published by the Australian Rostrum Council and the individual
Zones. This facility is expected to provide both a search engine
and links to a range of training material.
A critical function for the Rostrum training and development function
is the publication and management of the self paced member development
programs. Currently, a series of three development programs,
ranging from beginner level to advanced level is available. These
programs are known as the Personal Development Program, Intermediate
Development Program and Advanced Development Program. Degree of
difficulty, standard of assessment and range of skills progressively
increases in complexity and rigour as the member moves through the
various development programs.
With the increased demand for more career oriented development
programs, and a desire for tailored development programs, Rostrum has
revised its member development framework. The programs in this
new framework will permit member to develop along a range of paths –
traditional speaking and meeting management skills, business speaking
skills, leadership skills, presentation skills and so on. The
first two programs in this framework, Confident Speaking and
Successful Meetings, were released in 2001, and the third program, Better Presentations was released in 2003
The Australian Rostrum Council is taking a progressive approach to
training and development, and desires to be at the forefront of its
field, in both the content and delivery of this important function.
For more information about Rostrum Traning, please refer to your state.