Training Courses

We provide a comprehensive range of training courses for SDA Delegates each year.

Completing SDA Delegate training each year is a key component in ensuring you’re prepared to best engage with, represent and empower SDA members at your workplace.

These courses are designed to provide you with the skills, knowledge and confidence to advocate for better and fairer outcomes in your workplace.

Our training courses generally run between March and December each year.

Delegate Courses

Introductory Delegates

The course is designed to give you the skills and knowledge needed to become an effective workplace representative.

It builds skills in representing workers, communicating with co-workers and management, and promoting co-operative workplace relations.

Advanced Course: Effective Negotiation

Negotiation is a valuable skill in the professional world and this workshop will focus on using a collaborative approach to negotiation, with the goal being a win-win situation for all parties.

Participants will explore conflict styles and work through an interactive exercise that will see them experience a collaborative approach to negotiation, whilst also exploring how to negotiate with a more hostile stakeholder.

This course will also develop your understanding of Emotional Intelligence and enable participants to learn to recognise and respond to those with different behavioural preferences, hence adhering to the “Golden Rule: Treat others as they would like to be treated.

Advanced Course: Politics at Work, Impacting Change in Parliament

This course seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the Australian democratic process.

This course includes a session at South Australian Parliament House and will give Delegates the opportunity to speak directly to both State and Federal Members of Parliament to better understand how laws are made and the impacts of them in your workplaces.

Advanced Course: The Importance of Telling Your Story

This course seeks to build and help you develop your “story of self”, “the story of you”, your values and why it matters when speaking to your co-workers.

Throughout the course you will work with other Delegates to build your confidence speaking with each other, your workmates and management.

Advanced Course: Accidental Counsellor

This course will build on and develop your skills as an “Accidental Counsellor”. Recognising that becoming an unexpected counsellor often comes as part of the job.

This course will help you to respond to members when they are angry, distressed or experiencing a challenging time at work and/or at home. It is facilitated by an external facilitator from Lifeline. Places are strictly limited.

Advanced Course: Industrial Skills - Your Rights and the Law

This course provides foundational knowledge of the Australian industrial relations system.

From dispute to resolution the course provides overview internal and external dispute mechanisms including the SAET, the Fair Work Commission and the Federal Court. This session also provides an understanding of the South Australian WorkCover system.

Regional Delegates Training

A combined New & Advanced Training opportunity for regional SDA Delegates.

This course is designed to develop and build on core industrial skills from workplace representation to developing communications skills to achieve positive outcomes. It brings together aspects of a range of other courses including Effective Negotiation, The Importance of Telling Your Story and Industrial Skills.