Community development workers - have your say Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - 16:15

Community development workers are encouraged to have their say about working with communities and creating learning opportunities - in a consultation ending this Friday, 27 February 2009.

The Federation for Community Development Learning (FCDL) and Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) are working on Phase Two of the Community Development Work National Occupation Standards. It aims to consult all community development workers - both paid and unpaid - in establishing good quality practice within National Occupational Standards.

Hundreds of people contributed to Phase One of the consultation last autumn, resulting in draft revised national occupational standards.

People can take part in the consultation online, where they will find:

• draft new key purpose, definition and values
• an introduction to the draft standards
• a questionnaire to complete; and
• a summary of the views collected from phase one.

Angela Sanders, Development Officer for NIACE, said:

"Advancing adult learning is at the heart of NIACE's purpose. Providing opportunities for adults to learn has real public as well as private benefits. Community Development Practitioners work with communities to bring about change and this will involve creating an environment for learning."

"The draft National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Community Development Practitioners set out the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to undertake a range of roles as a Community Development Practitioner and includes looking at how they promote and facilitate learning. Following an earlier consultation the standards are now at phase two and views are needed on the draft standards."