Workshops, webinars and courses

Below is a list of free workshops, sessions and webinars that are available to Victorian businesses. 

Virtual mentor session

Business Victoria offers free online business advice sessions to help you start or grow your small business. Available Monday to Friday, the one-on-one sessions with a business expert will provide information on your business idea or how to grow your existing business.

A business expert will help to identify a clear direction for your business, discuss key issues and priorities, and develop a business action plan to achieve your goals, all for free. Available Monday to Friday the sessions last 45-minutes and bookings are essential.

Please note that only one session is available for each business per 12-month period. Please call Business Victoria on 13 22 15 for further information.

Session times: 9.00am - 7.00pm
Venue: Online

Book here

Digital strategy (Upskill My Business self-paced course)

Improve your digital strategy with this highly interactive short course. By learning how to place digital at the heart of your business, you’ll be able to align your marketing strategy with customer personas, your brand story and identity, your team and their skillsets, and the customer buying process.

Topics covered:

  • The customer and your brand story
  • Setting a budget, nurturing a team, and assessing risk
  • Channel planning for a complex buying process
  • Becoming a digital leader

Total time: 11 hours
Venue: Online

Book here

Social media marketing (Upskill My Business self-paced course)

Fast-track your social media marketing skills in this cutting-edge, interactive short course. Learn brand storytelling, persona targeting, community building, social analytics and more. Get a globally recognised certification that enables you to stand out from other job applicants.

Topics covered: 

  • Social Consumers
  • Social Apps and Building Communities
  • Brand Storytelling
  • Designing Social Content
  • Thinking Strategically
  • Social Sharing

Total time: 13 hours
Venue: Online

Book here

Content marketing (Upskill My Business self-paced course)

This online Content Marketing course teaches you content marketing best practices. Learn how to craft your social media messaging to bring visitors to your website and keep them there. Get tips on how to write a good headline, use keywords effectively and choose the right tone for your audience.

Topics covered: 

  • Content audit
  • Channel promotion
  • Brief development
  • SEO marketing concepts
  • Measuring concepts
  • Keyword research
  • Content creation and repurposing
  • Enhancing your creativity
  • Your brand story

Total time: 10 hours 
Venue: Online

Book here

Wimmera Mallee Tourism Toolkit

This online training toolkit is designed to help businesses in the Wimmera Mallee region to expand and grow, while serving in the tourism industry.

More information

Maximising your marketing (Business Victoria)

Business Victoria, in collaboration with Monarch Institute are offering this online course to help you give your business a digital marketing face lift.

‘Maximising Your Marketing’ is about understanding what marketing is and what the key actions are that are required to be successful in marketing your business.

These learning modules are entirely online and comprise of slides, PDF’s and a workbook that you can study at your pace. Take notes, make lists, get your action plan written, and put your new skills to use straight away. This course can be taken on its own or you can book to attend a live workshop or webinar to compliment your learnings.The length of learning modules are about 4-6 hours. This is dependent on your previous study experience, time availability, how fast you work and how committed you are.

Book here

Social media and content marketing (Business Victoria)

Business Victoria, in collaboration with Monarch Institute are offering this online course to give small businesses guidance on how to prioritise your digital and social media marketing efforts.

‘Social Media and Content Marketing’ provides actionable tips, tools and strategies to enhance your online presence and ultimately attract customers.

The course is completely online and comprises of slides, PDF’s and a workbook that you can study at your pace. Take notes, make lists, get your action plan written, and put your new skills to use straight away. This course can be taken on its own or you can book to attend a live workshop or webinar to compliment your learnings.

The length of the topics are about 4-6 hours in total. This is dependent on your previous study experience, time availability, how fast you work and how committed you are.

Book here

Winning government grants and tenders (Business Victoria)

Business Victoria, in collaboration with Monarch Institute are offering this online course to help give small businesses the confidence they need to engage in government work by providing practical tips and simple strategies on how to develop business opportunities and then respond to Government tenders, quotes and grants.

‘Winning Government Grants and Tenders’ offers business owners at any stage, solutions to improve your strategy to grow your business. You’ll learn how to engage with government and how to respond to government offer documents with confidence.

These learning modules are entirely online and comprise of slides, PDF’s and a workbook that you can study at your pace. Take notes, make lists, get your action plan written, and put your new skills to use straight away. This course can be taken on its own or you can book to attend a live workshop or webinar to compliment your learnings.

The length of learning modules are about 4-6 hours. This is dependent on your previous study experience, time availability, how fast you work and how committed you are.

Book here

People, processes and technology (Business Victoria)

Business Victoria, in collaboration with Monarch Institute are offering this online course to help you develop critical organisational competencies for your small business.

‘People, Processes and Technology’ is about helping you understand how to get the most out of your people. It covers culture transformation and process improvement, resulting in a more effective and sustainable change effort.

These lessons are entirely online and comprise of slides, PDF’s and a workbook that you can study at your pace. Take notes, make lists, get your action plan written, and put your new skills to use straight away. This course can be taken on its own or you can book to attend a live workshop or webinar to compliment your learnings.

The length of learning modules are about 4-6 hours. This is dependent on your previous study experience, time availability, how fast you work and how committed you are.

Book here

Innovator's Mindset (Business Victoria)

Business Victoria, in collaboration with Monarch Institute are offering this online course to help kick start your small business or boost your existing one.

‘Innovator’s Mindset is about helping you connect themes of innovation, time management and leadership in business, to build systems for a more efficient workplace.

These lessons are entirely online and comprise of slides, PDF’s and a workbook that you can study at your pace. Take notes, make lists, get your action plan written, and put your new skills to use straight away. This course can be taken on its own or you can book to attend a live workshop or webinar to compliment your learnings.

The length of the course is about 4-6 hours. This is dependent on your previous study experience, time availability, how fast you work and how committed you are.

Book here

Starting your small business (Business Victoria)

Starting Your Small Business’ is about helping you understand the key aspects of starting your business. Whether it has been days or years since you last formally learned, this course will offer various ways to understand the concepts of managing a business and will help you act with confidence in your own business.

Book here

Generating cash flow (Business Victoria)

'Generating Cash Flow’ is designed to help you identify the key cash-flow drivers in your business and looks at finance fundamentals for any stage of business. This content is great for business owners of already established small businesses, or anyone planning to set up a small business and wants to familiarise themselves with finance fundamentals.

Book here

Strengthening business practices (Business Victoria)

The ‘Strengthening Business Practices’ course is designed to help owners of an existing small businesses who want short term, constructive advice to support business recovery as well as tools for longer-term future crisis planning. It also includes aspects of personal resilience and coping techniques for the well-being of the business owner as well as the health of the business.

Book here

Advanced strategies to taking your business online (Business Victoria)

Advanced Strategies to Taking Your Business Online’ is designed to give you the knowledge, strategies and tools to grow your business online. You’ll learn how digital technologies are impacting the way businesses operate, what a digital strategy is and the elements you need to consider when developing your digital strategy. Once you’ve completed the course you can pop your new skills to use straight away.

Book here

Cybersecurity (Business Victoria)

‘Cybersecurity’ is about helping you understand the importance of cybersecurity and how to protect your business from the consequence of an attack. Learn key strategies about how to stay on top of this ever-moving topic.

Book here

Customer experience (Monarch Institute)

Fast-paced, with a nod to future technology and processes, this course will teach you everything you need to know about your digital customer experience (CX). It’s packed with tips and tricks to stay one step ahead of the competition. Includes all course materials, exam, digital certification and FREE membership to the Digital Marketing Institute.

Total time: 10 hours
Venue: Online

Book here

Taking your business online (Business Victoria)

‘Taking Your Business Online’ is about helping you understand what support is available to help you make informed decisions about your business activities online. Starting out? already established? You’ll benefit from foundation knowledge and strategies on technology, social media options, email communications and measuring your success.

Book here 

Hiring employees (Fair Work)

This course provides general guidance on hiring a new employee.

Topics

  • Understand the steps in the hiring process
  • Decide if hiring a new employee is the best option for you
  • Understand employee entitlements and your obligations
  • Attract the best applicants and conduct interviews
  • Select the most suitable candidate and make them an offer of employment
  • Induct employees, develop their skills and hold onto strong performers
  • Locate downloadable resources, templates and links to further information

Total time: 30 minutes
Venue: Online

Book here

Managing employees (Fair Work)

Good employee management is linked to lower staff turnover, higher productivity and business success. This course help you to develop people management skills, build a high performing team and help your business achieve its goals.

Total time: 30 minutes

Venue: Online

Book here

Managing performance (Fair Work)

To be a high performing business you need to have high performing employees. As an employer or manager, there are steps you can take to maintain good performance, as well as deal with underperformance issues if they arise.

Total time: 30 minutes
Venue: Online

Book here

Record keeping and play slips (Fair Work)

Good record-keeping practices are vital for employers to meet their legal obligations, keep track of how their business is going and make informed decisions about the future. This course will teach you how to make, update and manage employment records for your business.

Total time: 30 minutes
Venue: Online

Book here

Hiring employees (Fair Work)

This course provides general guidance on hiring a new employee. The course will help you to:

  • understand the steps in the hiring process
  • decide if hiring a new employee is the best option for you
  • understand employee entitlements and your obligations
  • attract the best applicants and conduct interviews
  • select the most suitable candidate and make them an offer of employment
  • induct employees, develop their skills and hold onto strong performers
  • locate downloadable resources, templates and links to further information.

Total time: 25 minutes
Venue: Online

Book here

Managing employees (Fair Work)

This course will help you develop your people management skills, so you can build a high performing team and help your business achieve its goals. It includes:

  • case studies to improve your communication skills
  • practical strategies to motivate your employees
  • tips to help you manage compliance with workplace laws
  • best practice guidance for dealing with common workplace problems
  • downloadable resources and links to further information.

Venue: Online

Book here

Managing performance (Fair Work)

To be a high performing business you need to have high performing employees. As an employer or manager, there are steps you can take to maintain good performance, as well as deal with underperformance issues if they arise. This course contains practical information to help you:

  • set up a performance management system
  • conduct effective performance conversations
  • conduct performance evaluations
  • motivate employees by rewarding and recognising good performance
  • locate downloadable resources, templates and links to further information.

Total time: 25 minutes
Venue: Online

Book here

Record-keeping and pay slips (Fair Work)

Good record-keeping helps you protect and manage your business. This course will help you understand:

  • what employment records are and why you need them
  • when employment records need to be made and how long you must keep them
  • what pay slips are and what details you need to include on them
  • how to handle common record-keeping and pay slip questions, respond to audits and interact with Fair Work Inspectors
  • tools and resources available to help you manage your obligations around record-keeping and pay slips.

The course is interactive and lets you control your learning journey. Interactive scenarios are available to help you test your knowledge.

Total time: 30 minutes
Venue:
Online

Book here