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Learning and Skills Councils: Opportunities for the Voluntary Sector
Dartington Hall Conference Centre, Totnes
Thursday 9th March 2000.
This page contains appendices FROM, and should be read in conjunction WITH the Regional Report
For the South West Region seminar
The planning and delivery of this event was undertaken on behalf of NIACE and the WEA by Cheryl Turner (Development Officer, NIACE) and Michael Freeston (Education Officer, WEA).
Particular acknowledgement needs to be given to the hard work of administrative staff of both organisations, especially Philippa Cattell, Averil Coutinho and Vera Tunçel, for ensuring the smooth running of the event.
52 participants registered to attend the event. Representatives of the Government Office Local Learning Partnerships, voluntary groups and 'umbrella' organisations attended. This spread of experience and knowledge ensured that participants’ contributions, both in the discussion groups and plenary sessions were lively and informative.
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At the South West Region seminar
| Voluntary Organisations are pivotal as both providers and a source of learners. |
| Quality Assurance systems must not be too onerous for small organisation. |
| Will LSCs membership merely be the same 'great and the good'? |
| Communication between 'grass roots' and the top levels must be effective. |
| Non-accredited learning and learning for non-vocational reasons, need to be valued. |
| Quality standards should reflect 'soft' gains. Informal interaction should be recognised as being of value. Learning should not be equated necessarily with 'being on a course'. |
| The outcomes of the feeder colloquium on non-accredited learning should be circulated to the Sector. |
| How are groups not represented at this Seminar able to hear about its outcome? |
| Electronic copies of NIACE/WEA leaflets and reports should be circulated where possible. |
| Appropriate tutor training and quality assurance systems should be developed. Questions arise around whether City and Guilds 7307 is always appropriate. |
| Form filling and bureaucracy should be simplified. |
| The importance of three year funding for stability should be recognised. |
| There are capacity issues for small organisations around coping with administration requirements. |
| Small organisations may suffer cash-flow problems (this can be exacerbated by franchising mechanism). |
| Current mechanisms for identifying depravation (e.g. post codes) may miss pockets of need. Indicators should be developed to address this problem. |
| Who will lose financially from these new arrangements? |
| Systems for measuring informal learning gain particularly over a period of time, need to look at both processes and learners' circumstances. |
| Who, in reality, will receive payments from LSCs? Will competition from larger providers make the Voluntary Sector lose out? |
| In rural areas core funding is necessary to sustain developments not just start them. |
| How will provision for distance learning be calculated and administered? |
| How will the voice of non-learners be heard? |
| How do Voluntary Organisations ensure access to local learning partnerships? |
| All too frequently the Voluntary Sector undersells itself and does not always recognise its own value. |
| Issues arise around how to identify 'key' people to 'represent' the Sector and how they should be supported in this role. |
| The costs of using ICT as a means of communication must be recognised. Money for capital expenditure is often available but not for revenue. |
| An important challenge for the Sector is how to develop links with LSC staff (given that the number of board members is only 10-15 people). |
| Lines of communication and reporting from LSCs to the grass roots must be effective to ensure the Sector is kept well informed. |
| LSCs need to recognise the diversity of the Sector and work with existing routeways to ensure negotiations are effective. |
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At the South West Region seminar
From the forms returned the ratings for this event were: 12 very good, 18 good and 3 satisfactory. Overall, the written comments were positive and spoke favourably about the clear structure of the programme and the balance between presentations, discussion and feedback, the informal, friendly atmosphere and free flow and open character of the comments, the documentation before and during the event, the fact that it was clearly for voluntary bodies and included a number of grass-roots organisations, and the richness of the plenary discussions due to the diverse experience and knowledge of the participants.
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