This course is primarily aimed at people working in a business setting that want to feel more confident in their communication at all levels inside and outside of the organisation.

The course will provide you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to become more assertive, taking control of your life in the process. Your assertiveness is your ability to express your feelings, beliefs, and thoughts and defend your rights in a non-destructive way. It involves effectively and constructively expressing your emotions so that you can be forthright and frank when putting your views across. Your assertiveness considers how far you will go to stand up your rights for what you perceive is right.  Assertiveness and aggression are two very different things although the two qualities are often somewhat confused.  Aggression involves hostile acts or feelings whereas assertiveness is your confidence in being able to show determination with persistence and constructively argue your own views in a calm and positive way. If you are not naturally assertive, it can take some effort, but being more assertive is not impossible. For this to work you must approach them with an open mind and be ready to put into practice what you learn. Use this course to help you boost your assertiveness.  You can work through the entire course, or, because we all have busy lives, you have the option to go straight to particular skills you’d like to work on. By completing this course, you will be able to - Identify methods and techniques to express assertive behaviour effectively - Develop ways to improve your level of assertiveness and ways to be assertive in appropriate ways - Recognise the implications of passive, aggressive and assertive behaviour, and passive-aggressive behaviour - Determine how you can say "No" without feeling guilty