At Manchester Deaf Centre we can help you to make your business accessible and welcoming to deaf and hard of hearing customers and employees. We provide affordable training and development opportunities for your staff team.
About our training
Did you know:
- there are more than 10 million people in the UK with some form of hearing loss, which is roughly 1 in every 6 people?
- British Sign Language (BSL) is a different language to English; it has its own structure and grammar, and is the first language of over 125,000 people in the UK?
Deaf people face many barriers every day, including difficulties with accessing company help lines, customer services, websites and general communication.
Our training equips your staff with the awareness, skills and confidence required to make your business friendly and accessible for deaf people, and to meet your customers’ needs according to The Equalities Act (2010).
We offer both short courses and longer-term learning opportunities for individuals and organisations.
We can also tailor training to make it specific to your business, and we offer delivery here at the Deaf Centre, or at your preferred venue, or online.
Available Courses
- Deaf Awareness (Online 2 hours)
- Deaf Awareness for Healthcare Professionals (Online 2 hours)
- Deaf Awareness (Face-to-face 3 hours)
- Combined Deaf Awareness and Basic Intro to BSL (Face-to-face 5 hours)
- 5 Week Intro to BSL (Online)
- 5 Week Intro to BSL (Face-to-face)
- 1 Hour BSL Taster session (Online)
Longer Courses
Our British Sign Language courses are a perfect option for staff who would like to progress to a qualification in BSL or are seeking a longer-term learning opportunity.
We are a registered centre with Signature, which is the leading awarding body for BSL qualifications, and we currently deliver Levels 1–3.
For an overview of Levels 1–3 please visit Signature’s website. Individual places on courses running on our open programme can be booked through here. To discuss a bespoke booking for your organisation please use the the contact details below.
Would you like to organise training?
Our teachers are fully qualified, experienced, reputable, and profoundly deaf native BSL users. Our training is delivered in British Sign Language to ensure an authentic learning experience. Where necessary, a fully qualified BSL Interpreter will be present to assist with the facilitation of communication between teacher and participants. Our training provides you and your staff with the opportunity to raise your awareness of the different types of hearing loss that people have and provides you with communication tactics and best practice when dealing with deaf colleagues and clients.
Manchester Deaf Centre can provide training to:
- Public sector organisations
- Voluntary sector organisations
- Private/corporate sector
- Other
For more information, to make a booking, or to discuss your training needs, please contact us:
Tel: 0161 273 3415 / 07917 368832
Email: business@manchesterdeafcentre.com
Testimonials
Online Introduction to British Sign Language
“Excellent introductory course that took me from zero knowledge of BSL to a good basic knowledge and greatly increased my interest to progress. The tutor and interpreters were excellent.” Paul McGowan, Lloyds Banking Group
Online Deaf Awareness
“The deaf awareness session delivered remotely was interesting, engaging and ran seamlessly in my view. Not just the content but all the facilitators/ presenters involved. Any preconceptions that anyone may have had about deaf people or people with hearing loss was eliminated within minutes. It was powerful, and it made me think more around the ways in which deaf people communicate, and about deaf identity and culture. Overall, a very informative course, opened my eyes to the emotional impact of hearing loss. I thought I had an understanding of Deaf people – I didn’t." Bridgeen Kane, Risk Manager, Oldham CCG
Online Deaf Awareness
“This course has allowed me not to be “scared” to try to converse with a Deaf/deaf person. It was extremely eye opening and I am very glad I attended, I no longer feel that I would be unable to have a discussion with a person who is Deaf. Thank you.” Jane Harris, NHS
Online Deaf Awareness
“I really enjoyed all aspects of the course! It was very insightful to hear [the tutor’s] experiences and has got me thinking about how we could make our service more accessible for our service users. I think the training will adapt my practice and increase our awareness as a team.” Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, NHS
