
Empathy for Impact: Human Centred Design in Employment Services
A 3-day intensive course that applies a 4-part Human Centred Design (HCD) method for generating new and practical solutions to complex problems. In this course, you will practice using this accessible, easy-to-use framework and learn creative ways of enhancing and designing programming that is engaging and effective for clients.


About the course
In Empathy for Impact: Human-Centred Design for Employment Services, participants gain a foundational knowledge and application of Human-Centred Design principles and practices to create or enhance new client-centred employment and training programming.

What you will learn

Applying a human-centred design lens to existing services or new user-centred programming

Interviewing for empathy to better understand the social, emotional, and physical needs of clients

How to co-create programming with clients to provide the most effective and inclusive services

Using ideation tools and techniques to design programs more quickly and efficiently, using client input and feedback

How to improve client outcomes through service process improvements

Testing different Employment and Training solutions in a cost-effective manner

What's included

3-days of live facilitated lessons learning how to use HCD tools and frameworks with clients and in the design of services

Recordings of all facilitated sessions (available for 6 months)

A participant workbook including exercises and tools

Access to a private online community with regular resources and free trainings, including exclusive monthly live Q+A calls

Experience using the tools and applying them in real-life/real-work scenarios, via three applied take-home assignments

Certificate of Completion

Course Outline
The four phases of Human Centred Design- Inspiration, Ideation, Prototyping, and Implementation
The Creative Matrix, a tool for generating many ideas quickly
Affinity Mapping, a method for bundling brainstormed ideas and making them easier to implement
Framing your design challenge, a tool to help define the problem you are trying to solve and better scope the work needed
Scenario Mapping, a method for identifying current snags or design flaws in programs
Integrating inclusive design and accessibility to user-centred solutions
Empathy mapping and client-persona formulation, techniques to better understand the social, emotional, and physical needs of your clients
Methods and activities for rapid prototyping of services: storyboards, client journey maps, paper prototyping and mockups
Planning and conducting effective design research, including user and expert interviews

Upcoming dates

Empathy for Impact is a 3-day intensive course, delivered over 6 weeks
(6 hours per day)
The 2 week breaks between workshop days are used to apply concepts and test the tools in realtime.

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Sara Brown
Founder

Who should attend

Frontline employment service practitioners including career and employment counsellors, job developers, workshop facilitators, trainers, and other learning and development practitioners

Program managers, program developers, program planners and evaluators

Senior leadership in employment and training including Executive Directors, Directors of Programming, Directors of Operations, and others