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Learning Cities/Learning Towns Report
Donald Hirsch, whose report on the Gothenburg Conference has been the source of most of the thinking in the UK in relation to Learning Cities, feels that Cities are in a unique position to encourage the development of culture of lifelong learning for a number of reasons:
 | People relate to and identify with the place where they live and work. Cities provide a focus for learning activity. They also make national policies more meaningful by demonstrating how they relate to people's lives. |
| Education and particularly post school education is not a coherent system but a fragmented one, often competitive. The focus of the city is a useful one for collaboration and co-ordination. |
| The community based nature of much adult learning makes it possible to build learning elements into city led community activity and a city can also be a means for community action. |
About 20 communities in Britain have been inspired by the possibilities inherent in the idea of the Learning City and have not only called themselves Learning Cities/Learning Towns, but have made development of Lifelong Learning a key part of the strategy for the development of their community. The size and nature of the places involved varies widely from Liverpool, Sheffield and Hull to Swansea, Norwich and Retford. Although the particular patterns in each place are different, each being appropriate to the particular needs of their own locality, learning Communities have a number of common agendas:
| Co-ordination of adult - learning institutions. |
| Strategies for improving access to learning. |
| An education and training strategy related to the local economy. |
| Links between education sectors. |
| Links between learning and community participation. |
These are being pursued in a variety of local ways but initiatives are usually driven by partnerships of learning providers at the very least and at best including schools, the private sector and the voluntary sector. In a number of places the plans for lifelong learning form an essential part of overall economic planning. Considerable activity and interest in the areas of target setting and action planning characterises initiatives, although there are differences in approach in this area.
Among Learning City initiatives there are a considerable number of projects and activities promoting and encouraging participation in learning. A learning shop and learning festival in Norwich, a possible Children’s University in Hull, IT initiatives aimed at disadvantaged communities in Liverpool, Southampton and Newark.
This project activity can happen in any area where providers act in partnership but those who are working within Learning Cities initiatives identify a number of key advantages to this particular way of working.
| More permanent partnerships. |
| Joint development of bids. |
| Promotional opportunities. |
| Linking Learning and Economic Development. |
Few Learning City initiatives receive external funding for central running or administrative costs. In the main these costs are met by the memberships and external funds are only used for development of opportunities and facilities for learning within the community.
For more information contact Sue Cara at NIACE.
