Friday, April 3

The Great UK Mediation Training Con

Today's kick-ass piece from Matthew Rushton is worth a read - here's the money quote;

'Mediation doesn't need any more well-intentioned dupes, and training mediators has failed to grow the market. Training organisations might delude themselves into believing they're churning out the next generation of stellar mediators. They're not. When the bell goes and the pupils leave, they've just added a bunch more to the crowd of faces abandoned, unwanted, at the school gates.

Furthermore, while any available mediations are seized by wannabes who have no realistic prospect of building a practice, those with real talent and flair will never gain the experience to fulfill their potential. Making money from those without a hope of practising is an ethical issue; shafting mediation's future at the same time merely adds to the burden
...' [read more]

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Geoff, for those of us managing disputes (parties), the point of training is that it currently helps us identify those candidates for mediator who actually know what mediation is. I can think of several instances in which we've looked at a pile of cv's and the fact that candidate X had attended a CEDR training course several years earlier was a positive indication that they actually knew what mediation is.
keep up the great and opinionated posts!
Mike Mcilwrath