Welcome to the Women’s Aid Centre for Learning and Practice Development. Women’s Aid offer a range of specialist courses for workers and professionals designed to enhance understanding of domestic abuse and coercive control and provide the opportunity to develop skills to respond safely and effectively to those subjected to it.

Why training on domestic abuse and coercive control is important

1 in 3 women in Ireland are subjected to domestic violence and abuse. This means everyone will be interacting with victim-survivors in their work on an ongoing basis.  Experiences of domestic abuse and coercive control cannot be separated out from other issues that impact people’s safety, wellbeing and participation in society. Knowing how to respond safely and effectively to victim-survivors not only benefits survivors, but you in your professional role, your organisation and our communities generally.

The responses that survivors receive when seeking support can have a major impact on their safety and well-being. The opposite is also true, when uninformed responses can at their least, bring no benefit, and at their worst, increase harm. Women’s Aid training and practice support is focused on building professional confidence to contribute positively to survivors’ journeys to safety and wellbeing.

It is so important that professionals really understand what happens in domestic abuse and coercive control. Domestic abuse is everyone’s concern, and everyone should get informed. You might save a life.
Domestic abuse survivor

Why do Women’s Aid Training 

All Women’s Aid training is centrally informed by the lived experience of women who have been subjected to domestic violence and coercive control.  Our training is built on over 50 years of service provision to women and is also informed by national and international evidence of good practice.

Women’s Aid training provides essential knowledge about domestic abuse and coercive control through self-paced e-learning sessions. The accompanying live practice sessions provide an opportunity for professionals to try out how this information can be used in their role and to practice domestic abuse trauma-informed skills. Each practice session is tailored to the roles of the professionals attending. Our training courses are accredited through Awards for Training and Higher Education [ATHE].

Our approach recognises that domestic violence and abuse is gendered crime that disproportionately harms women, while understanding people of any gender may be impacted. The information we provide on responding to victims-survivors is gender inclusive and can be used to support anyone subjected to domestic abuse. 

Register on our learning platform
and view our learning catalogue

Who is this training for

This training will be useful for anyone who in the course of their work, interacts with
people who are at risk of domestic abuse.

Click on the boxes below to find out further information about our programmes.

Employer Engagement Programme (EEP)
supporting people in the workplace
Service Providers Programme (SPP)
supporting people in the community

Training Needs Questionnaire

Are you interested in taking a course as an individual or making a group booking of up to three people in your organisation?

We encourage you to complete this questionnaire to find the right training course for you.

Take the questionnaire

Free training for friends and family

The Allies and Informal Supporters course is a free resource, for anyone who would like to understand how to safely support someone they know who is being subjected to domestic abuse or coercive control. It consists of one self-paced eLearning module you can complete online.

You can access the course by signing up to Women’s Aid’s Centre for Learning and Practice Development Learning Platform.

Once you sign up, click on the Learning Catalogue and choose the Allies and Informal Supporters module free of cost

Learn more

Our Training team

Women’s Aid Training and Development Department has a proven track record of designing and delivering specialist domestic violence and abuse training to local and national organisations throughout Ireland.

Our training team brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise and engage with a wide range of audiences including healthcare professionals, social workers, community workers, employers, lawyers, family support workers, Gardaí, domestic abuse support workers and employers.

Meet our team

Statutory Domestic Violence Leave Supports for Employers

Statutory Domestic Violence Leave commenced on Monday 27th November 2023. 

Women’s Aid, contracted by the Department of Children, Equality, Integration, Disability and Youth, has produced free resources for employers to support the implementation of statutory domestic violence leave.

Visit www.DVatWork.ie

Get in touch

If you would like to enquire about group bookings (up to max.15 per session) or are interested in availing of both training progammes, please contact training@womensaid.ie

Our Privacy Notice and Policies

If you would like to know more about Women’s Aid Privacy Notice please click the button below

Women’s Aid Privacy Notice

If you would like to learn about our Refund and Cancellation Policy please click the button below.

Refund and Cancellation Policy

If you would like to learn about our Organisational Booking Timeline Policy, please click the button below.

Organisational Booking Timeline Policy