CTPL Certificate Programs
CTPL Certificate in International Negotiations Skills
This is a highly-interactive, skills development-focused course using case exercises and negotiation simulations based on real life examples in trade, climate change and diplomacy to develop further your experience and expertise in how to prepare, conduct, and finalize a modern and forward-looking international agreement. The course is based on interviews and the experience of former negotiators and diplomats from Canada, the United States, The United Kingdom, Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and China.
The course introduces CTPL’s stakeholder mapping and negotiation planning tools to help structure your analysis and develop your strategic and tactical negotiation skills. You will then use these tools to develop your team strategies in the simulations. Team coaches will provide “live” feedback during the case exercises and simulations.
The course is targeted to junior- to mid-level officials from government departments with international negotiation mandates who are either responsible for negotiation-related files or will be working on these files in the future. CTPL successfully delivered this course to 125+ negotiation professionals over the last four years.
Certificate in Multi-Party International Negotiations
This is an experiential four-day negotiation skills development course to develop recommendations to advance priority negotiation objectives in a multi-party international negotiation. The recommendations will be developed through a multi-day simulation among country teams on key priorities in a real-life international negotiation (e.g., renegotiation of CUSMA/USMCA; WTO Ministerial; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Each team will be provided with confidential mandates and coached by experienced negotiators. At the end of the fourth day of the simulation, each team will present their recommendations to a panel of international negotiation experts.
At the end of the course, you will have developed your expertise and experience in how to: (a) plan and prepare to negotiate internally before engaging in international multi-party negotiations; (b) build coalitions to advance multi-party negotiation; and (c) use CTPL negotiating planning and executing tools to improve your team’s performance at the negotiating table.
The course is targeted to junior- to mid-level officials from government departments with international negotiation mandates who are either responsible for negotiation-related files or will be working on these files in the future. CTPL has successfully delivered this course to 250+ negotiation professionals.
Customized Training Courses
CTPL works with senior managers of trade departments and their officials to develop customized training for both CTPL Certificate graduates and trade professionals with some negotiations, policy or trade law experience. These more advanced courses focus on the technical and strategic dimensions of particular negotiating issues in more detail than the CTPL Certificate Programs.
The courses are designed based on individual training needs assessments of the expected participants and the training priorities of their respective departments. Each course adopts an experiential learning approach, combining lectures and discussions with case exercises, simulations, and individual presentations. To maximize its impact on the negotiation process, course content and timing of delivery should complement preparations for, and participation in, the issues being dealt with at the negotiating table.
UK Trade Negotiations Skills Training (TNST) Project
CTPL has been designing and delivering training for the UK’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and its precursor, the former UK Department for International Trade, since 2017. During this period, CTPL has been the department’s key source for: practical trade negotiation training based on real-life simulations; training on how to deal effectively with each stage in the trade negotiation process; customized team training; and mentoring of senior negotiators. CTPL courses have trained the full range of trade negotiation officials – from new recruits to Chapter Leads, Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs.
In 2019, CTPL won an international competition to provide multi-year trade negotiation training and expert advice to continue to support the UK government in implementing its post-Brexit independent trade negotiation strategy. CTPL works directly with the Organizational Capability Group at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to design and deliver standardized and bespoke practical training based on experiential learning principles.
In 2020, training went online and the CTPL training offer expanded as the UK’s FTA negotiation agenda accelerated and moved into different stages of negotiation.
More than 350 trade professionals from the UK Department for International Trade and other trade-related UK government departments have since taken at least one of these online courses as they implement UK’s post-Brexit international trade negotiation strategy with more than 30 countries. A further 150+ trade professionals previously took the classroom-based simulation courses. The virtual and in-person training have both been well-received by CTPL’s clients.
As FTAs were concluded, CTPL’s training offer has expanded further to include bespoke training for the Bilateral Trade Relations (BTR) Directorate on trade agreement implementation matters.
WTO Trade Negotiations Training Support to Ethiopia
In 2020, the Government of Ethiopia restarted its WTO accession process that it had put on hold in the 2000s. As Chair of Ethiopia’s WTO accession Working Party, the United Kingdom launched a multi-year trade negotiation capacity building project to support Ethiopia in this process. This two-week skills development course targeted the need to strengthen Ethiopia’s ability to successfully negotiate the terms of its accession to the WTO, the bilateral and plurilateral negotiations that are part of this process, and of trade agreements more generally. Through practical and hands-on experience in how to prepare, conduct, and finalize a modern and forward-looking trade agreement, this training contributed directly to improving the ability of members of Ethiopia’s WTO accession team to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.
Trade Negotiation Skills Development in Cambodia
In 2020-2021, CTPL delivered six online courses on practical trade negotiations skills development for the Royal Government of Cambodia. The courses increased the knowledge and skill levels of Cambodia’s trade negotiators and improved their stakeholder engagement, both across government ministries and with the private sector. Participants were drawn from the Ministry of Commerce (MoC), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and other trade-related government departments. MoC was the government partner for this project. CTPL won an international competition to implement this project for ARISE+ Cambodia, which is co-financed by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
CTPL and the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA)
CTPL implemented the Canadian component of a four-year GAC-sponsored project to support Phase 1 of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) negotiation process and the implementation of the Boosting Intra-Africa Trade (BIAT) agenda. CTPL worked directly with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) through ATPC, the Africa Trade Policy Centre – https://www.uneca.org/african-trade-policy-centre. CTPL provided trade law advice and direct support to the AfCFTA negotiation process, working with the negotiation and legal teams in Ethiopia and across the continent. CTPL associates provided additional trade policy and trade law advice and training.