About TACS

The Nottingham Medical School TACS course is an intensive 1-day workshop, usually for 12 participants. Although it teaches generic skills the course is orientated towards health professionals and uses bio-medical and clinical examples. It includes the following sessions:

  • Teaching practical skills
  • Protocols for skills teaching
  • Assessing practical skills
  • Feedback on practical skills
  • Types of skills assessment
  • Devising assessment criteria for the assessment of practical skills

The course uses a variety of teaching techniques:

  • formal teaching & small group discussions
  • active group work
  • analysing and discussing teaching videos
  • practising teaching skills
  • evaluating one's own and others' teaching of practical skills
  • receiving and discussing feedback on teaching of practical skills & giving feedback to others

Upon completion of the one-day course participants should have the knowledge and skills enabling them to:

  • Identify the features common to all forms of skills teaching
  • Use a protocol for skills teaching
  • Choose an appropriate form of clinical skills assessment
  • Use feedback in teaching and assessing clinical skills
  • Create and use assessment criteria in the assessment of clinical skills

Participants need to come prepared to teach a simple practical skill, which need not be clinical. For those in need of inspiration, we shall provide a list of possible skills. You should use this list as suggestions only if you do not have one of your own. We want to attract a wide range of skills so please don't be limited by our imaginations! Please make sure that your equipment is not too bulky, dangerous or messy - either in itself or in what it produces. You will have 5 minutes in which to teach your skill and for your learner to learn how to do it.

The day will run from 9.15am to about 5pm. Refreshments and a sandwich lunch will be provided. If you have any special dietary requirements, please let us know and we will try to accommodate you.

A certificate of attendance will be provided to participants and CME points may be available.

NB: That due to constant high demand for places, we regret that the course fee is non-refundable. Should you be unable to attend, you may send a substitute but do please let us know if this is the case.


To reserve a place on the course, or to obtain further details, please contact: BR-Tips-tacs@exmail.nottingham.ac.uk.


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