Why public speaking skills are crucial for all professionals
The group of pupils, students and University graduates who are currently doing public speaking at Ndere Center in Ntinda a Kampala suburb. The students meet there every evening for a two hour coaching session where they do public speaking training and they critique each other’s performance. By the end of the training, they come out different from the people they were when they joined the training. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
All professionals and those seeking to get employed have been urged to undertake training in public speaking if they are to effectively communicate with the public.
Dr Denis Akankunda Bwesigye, the founder Public Speaking Uganda, an institute specializing in offering public speaking skills, says confidence in public speaking is crucial in this world of work.
“Public speaking is an advantageous skill and those who skilled in it deliver a message in a packaged and believable way,” Dr Bwesigye says, adding that public speaking is not inborn but can be acquired after training.
“I have trained professionals and young people from Centres for Disease Control, USAID funded projects lawyers, Uganda Revenue Authority staff, Ministry staff, Makerere University lecturers,” he says.
The expert, who is currently training several groups of people, including high school and university students at Ndere Cultural Centre in Ntinda, a Kampala suburb, says public speaking needs to be learned at an early stage because it is a sustainable skill.
“The reviews of trainings I have conducted in universities in the United States show that the course has had impact on people who have gone through it and whenever we call for trainings, the turn up is 100 per cent,” he says.
According to Dr Bwesigye, training in public speaking is meant to help professionals to undergo a therapeutic process of gradual exposure to practicing public speaking and ultimately overcoming anxieties and fear.
He says the course helps professionals with moderate to severe public speaking anxieties to become dynamic and confident communicators in virtually any speaking situations, whatever the challenge be it during formal presentations, group discussions, business meetings, sales confrontations, and job interviews.
Target beneficiaries range from lawyers, university lecturers, consultants or researchers, politicians, bankers, non-profit personnel, government officers, and the average person, among others.
