Learning in communities

Why we do it

We believe that increasing and improving adult learning in community settings is a critically important means of addressing inequality of access to education and training. Learning in communities develops confidence and self-belief and helps empower individuals from under-represented groups to take control of their lives and realise their full potential.

What we do

Through a wide range of activities we aim to make a positive impact on the capacity of individuals and groups of learners in different communities to get the learning they require to achieve their aspirations and meet their needs. We seek to positively infuence government policy and understanding of the role and benefits of learning in communities, and develop curricula, practice, and models of development and delivery of learning in communities, publishing resources to support this work.

Our achievements in 2011-12

• Commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, we consulted individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds across England on the future for adult and community learning (ACL). As a result, we are heavily involved in the development of the detailed proposals arising, including the prospectus for piloting Community Learning Trusts.
• We managed the £900,000 Adult and Community Learning Fund, commissioned by the Skills Funding Agency, supporting adult and community learning opportunities in England which help make the Big Society a reality. The fund had already distributed a total of £2.25 million.
• Positioning learning and skills as central to wider concerns such as health, anti-poverty and localism, with adult learning providers we tested a specific model of social return on investment, assessing social and economic value, and produced three publications on the social value of adult learning.
• NIACE Dysgu Cymru helped the Welsh Assembly draft and implement its policy for adult continuing education – Delivering Community Learning for Wales – achieving greater understanding of the policy across the sector and helping ACL partnerships to develop effective self-assessment reports.
• NIACE won the contract to manage the Skills Funding Agency’s Community Learning Innovation Fund, running from September 2012 to July 2013. A total of £4 million will be provided to groups and organisations from across England for new and imaginative community learning opportunities to encourage adults to take up, succeed and progress in learning.
• Strategic discussions were held with a number of local authorities about their role in the learning and skills agenda, helping us to support and advise across economic development, wellbeing and citizenship agendas.

Colleges in their Communities

The fnal report of the independent Commission on Colleges in Their Communities – supported by NIACE with the Association of Colleges (AoC) and the 157 Group – was launched at the AoC annual conference in November 2011. It called for more accountability of colleges to their communities to balance the greater freedoms they had received from central controls.

Led by Baroness Sharp, the Commission argued that if colleges in England are to do ‘more with less’ then government needs to cut red tape and all colleges need to do more to engage with and respond to learners and their local communities. The report also called for a new generation of entrepreneurial leaders, working closely with local employers, within a new community curriculum.

The Commission found that while many colleges are already frmly embedded in their communities they still have to negotiate an unduly complex funding regime. Partnerships were recognised as an important way of embedding colleges in their communities, but it was found that these can be expensive in terms of resources and management time. However, local decision-making, commissioners agreed, is crucial and engagement that involves employers, learners and the wider community in helping make these decisions and develop the college curriculum, is the most effective.

The Inquiry resulted in a range of recommendations, including a number for government which are on the way to implementation. NIACE has a role in helping to implement the recommendations in partnership with the AoC, 157 Group and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service.

Our key objectives for 2012-13

• Work for continued public investment in community learning in advance of the CSR through the development of a robust body of evidence on the impact and wider benefits of learning.
• Strengthen understanding of the practice and the wider value of family learning in communities through a Family Learning Inquiry, ensuring its findings and recommendations have maximum impact on practice, planning and policy through coordinated dissemination  via publications, briefings and events.
• Support the field to develop effective new ways of working in communities through the management of the Community Learning Trust (CLT) pilot support programme and the Community Learning Innovation Fund (CLIF), and by ensuring key messages from both initiatives are identified and communicted effectively to policy-makers and to practitioners.
• Build on work arising from the Sharp Report and New Challenges, New Chances to support providers’ increased responsiveness to their communities through dissemination of a community curriculum with associated materials, briefings and events for the field; and by raising the profile of this work, and other relevant FE developments, with higher education institutions (HEIs) involved in community engagement activity.
• Strengthen the skills and knowledge within communities to determine local learning opportunities by: managing the next phase of the Community Learning Champions National Support programme; consolidating links with other champion-type initiatives (e.g. digital and health); where possible, fostering links with HEI peer volunteer initiatives; and by capturing and disseminating evidence of impact.