Date: 25 February 2026
Venue: UCT Neuroscience Institute
Time: 09h00 to 15h30
Course fees
R 2 200 per person (Private individuals)
The first five delegates to register will receive a Behavioural Scientist subscription – the go-to magazine for the most exciting ideas in behavioural science.
Bespoke corporate and organisational bookings are available — request a quote.
This short course introduces professionals to the foundational principles of behaviour change and behavioural science. It is designed to build a practical understanding of what drives human behaviour and how to encourage positive change across individual, team, and system levels.
The course aims to equip participants with the mindset and essential tools to analyse behavioural challenges, design context-appropriate solutions, and communicate for change effectively across diverse professional settings, using principles of behavioural communication to design messages and interventions that resonate with real human motivations.
Who Should Attend
The target audience is pan-sectoral and includes professionals from health, education, business, government, and NGOs – who want to understand and influence human behaviour in their work.
The course covers key foundations of behaviour change, balancing conceptual understanding with applied learning.
Course Content
1. Introduction to Behavioural Science – what it is, and why it matters for effective communication and change.
2. Understanding Human Behaviour – overview of how people make decisions, form habits, and respond to context.
3. Barriers and enablers of change – identifying psychological, social, and environmental influences.
4. Designing for behaviour change – translating insight into practical strategies for influence and engagement. Overview of behavioural communications: how message framing, timing, messenger effects, and social proof influence attention, motivation, and follow-through.
5. Empathy and context – Understanding audience mindsets and mental models to craft communications that align with their values and lived experiences.
6. Application and reflection – applying behaviour science thinking to participants’ own work challenges.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
● Explain the core principles of behaviour change, behavioural communication and their relevance across sectors.
● Analyse behavioural challenges by identifying key barriers and drivers.
● Apply behavioural insights to design or improve initiatives, programmes, or communication.
● Use empathy and contextual understanding to make change strategies more effective.
● Develop a simple action plan to apply behaviour change approaches in their professional setting.
● Design communication strategies that apply behavioural principles such as framing, salience, messenger, and timing to improve engagement and impact.
A digital certificate of completion will be issued to participants of the course. Participants will receive a 'Certificate of Completion' from the University of Cape Town's Continuing Education Unit (CEU) upon full participation.
A verifiable 'Fundamentals of Behaviour Change in SA' digital badge is also included, making it easy to display your achievement on LinkedIn or other professional platforms.