Community Learning Champions

[Background] [The Learning Revolution Festival] [Audience] [Programme] [Application Form]

The National Support Programme for Community Learning Champions (CLCs) - proposed in the White Paper The Learning Revolution (BIS 2009) - is launched officially
on 8 October 2009 in Birmingham. The aims of this national event are to:

• explain and demonstrate the potential roles of Community Learning Champions and how they can promote engagement in informal adult learning
• explore the benefits that informal adult learning can have in local communities and for disadvantaged and excluded people
• launch the Community Learning Champions National Support Programme and outline the opportunities it offers for new CLC initiatives

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Background

Community Learning Champions are enthusiastic volunteers who promote the value of learning to friends, neighbours and relatives. They parallel the successful development of a national body of 23,000 union learning representatives (ULRs), led by the TUC’s unionlearn, who encourage their workmates to think about learning and point them in the right direction to take advantage of learning opportunities at work.

The new National Support Programme provides an opportunity to build on and extend good practice, so that the CLC approach can help to open up the opportunities for informal adult learning wherever they arise. The approach has potential in health, housing, regeneration and many other fields where service providers are keen to engage the community in service design and delivery and to improve the health and wellbeing of communities. The Programme is funded by the Department for  business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and will be delivered by a consortium comprising NIACE, the Workers’ Educational Association, unionlearn and Martin Yarnit  associates.

The National Support Programme has three main elements:

• a support package that will provide a CLC toolkit, a training and development framework, a free training programme plus regional networks and a website
• a Development Fund which will fund up to 50 local CLC initiatives in 2009-11
• a branding and badging scheme to accredit CLCs and to raise their profile across the country

The Support Programme aims to bring national coherence to local developments, raise the profile of the CLC approach and embed it in a wide range of activities  here informal adult learning can enhance the quality of life for individuals and communities, especially those facing disadvantage and discrimination. Disability, mental ill-health and homelessness are some of the areas where informal adult learning can transform people’s lives.

A major feature of this event is that participants will be able to contribute comments and examples for a report that will appear on the new website and in a national  publication. Roving reporters will circulate at the event collecting stories and ideas, and participants will be able to use text messaging to contribute to the discussion, with feedback displayed digitally as the day goes on.

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The Learning Revolution Festival

The launch of the programme falls during October's Learning Revolution Festival, a month-long celebration of informal adult learning and an opportunity to promote its benefits to individuals, organisations and communities. Festival activities being hosted by a wide range of organisations include tasters, workshops, exhibitions, miniprojects, competitions, performances, demonstrations, displays and classes, some of which are being funded by BIS. For further information, go to http://thelearningrevolution.ning.com/ or www.direct.gov.uk/learningrevolution.

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Audience

If you are not already familiar with the role of Community Learning Champions in opening up informal adult learning, this event will help you to understand the  potential for your line of work. If you are, it will help to put your work in a wider context as well as explaining the support to be made available through the National Support Programme.

This event and the National Support Programme will be of interest to:

• existing learning champions and people who run schemes which support them
• organisations which have an interest in working with CLCs
• Local Strategic Partnerships
• Local Authority Elected Members and Officers
• policymakers in government, local government, and thinktanks
• voluntary and community organisations and agencies in a wide range of fields including mental health, disability, worklessness, refugees, offenders and
  ex-offenders
• national and regional agencies such as the Homes and Communities Agency, regional development agencies, Skills Funding Agency / Learning and Skills
  Councils
• adult and community learning providers
• extended schools
• Primary Care Trusts
• Registered Social Landlords
• Surestart / Children’s Learning Centres

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Programme

09:30 Arrival and registration (tea/coffee available)

10:00 Welcome and introduction to the day
Chair: Martin Yarnit, Joint Managing Director, Martin Yarnit Associates Limited

10:05 Community Learning Champions: The new story about informal adult learning
Alan Tuckett, Chief Executive, NIACE

10:15 Short video introductions to different learning champion approaches

10:30 Round table discussion 1: How can we apply the CLC approach to our area of activity?

11:00 Tea/coffee break

11:30 Round table discussion 2: Opening up the Debate, making the case for the CLC approach

12:00 Reviewing the feedback from the round table discussions: comments, questions and answers with a panel of four drawn from CLC initiatives, the National Support Programme and other agencies

12:30 Lunch

13:15 Keynote address: The Learning Revolution - ambitions and scope
Katherine Cowell, Deputy Director, Learners and Communities Division, Department for Business Innovation and Skills

13:45 Unionlearn: learning from the ULR experience
Judith Swift MBE, Union Development Manager, unionlearn

14:15 The National Support Programme: main elements
Liz Cousins, Project Manager for the CLC Support Programme

• Support Package
• Development Fund
• Branding and Badging

15:15 Final Keynote: The Promise of Informal Adult Learning
Prof Bob Fryer CBE, former National Director for Widening Participation in Learning, Department of Health

15:45 Close of national launch (tea/coffee available)

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Application Form