Adapt Projects

 

 

The Lancashire Colleges Consortium

INTEGRA projects:

 

Empowering Local Communities - This project aims to train voluntary workers and those who are members of local action groups in the skills that they need to make their voices heard and to make them effective as advocates of local interests.

Developing Labour Market Integration through the Development of Key Skills
The Key Skills project at providing local residents with the skills they need to enter or re-enter the world of employment.

Both projects concentrate on a certain number of wards that have considerable problems and aim to help people in these areas to improve their own circumstances and the area in which they live.

As a result of the project centres have been set up in Morecambe, Blackpool, Preston, Blackburn, Accrington, Nelson, Burnley, Bolton and Skelmersdale. The centres are in the very heart of the communities which they aim to help so that local people do not have the barriers.

The Lancashire Colleges Consortium is currently engaged in two INTEGRA projects which are supported by funding from the European Social Fund. The two projects are quite distinct in a number of ways but they share a number of features.

• Both projects are targeted at wards within Lancashire / Greater Manchester with high indices of deprivation - CED wards
• In both projects it has been determined that it is most appropriate to bring services to the people who live in the Wards rather than to expect them to access provision on a central College site and in order to do this local centres are being established.
• In order to provide flexibility and support additional services are being offered using computer based open and distant learning and in each project there will be a "telematic" link to the main College site.
• Both projects involve setting up local networks of voluntary agencies and statutory organisations to establish and respond to local needs.
• Both projects involve working with and exchanging experiences with transnational partners - the projects partners are in Holland , Austria , Greece , Spain and Italy .

Ten Colleges were partners in the projects :-

Accrington and Rossendale College Nelson and Colne College Blackpool and the Fylde College Lancaster and Morecambe College Blackburn St.Mary's College

Preston College Skelmersdale College Bolton College Burnley College Blackburn College

The two projects are:

Empowering Local Communities to Provide Access to the Labour Market

There is general agreement that to change the position of excluded groups within areas which have high levels of deprivation and where many people are in danger of exclusion it is necessary to involve existing groups composed of residents of the local area. It is these residents who are most intimately aware of the needs of the ward and the concerns of its residents. Many voluntary neighbourhood groups function very effectively both to bring the needs of residents of the area to the awareness of politicians and statutory organisations and to act as self-help groups for residents.

The "Empowering" project offers local people and people working in the target wards the opportunity to develop their organisational and personal skills to make their work still more effective. Local projects will offer training in a wide range of skills to these local "animateurs" to develop the skills they need to collect information about the needs of local people, to publicise these views and to make their views known to politicians, local authorities, employers and other organisations who have the power, and the responsibility to develop new opportunities for people living in the local areas.

A summary of some of the major elements of the project drawn from the project application is reproduced below:

The overall purpose of the project is to develop innovative approaches and methodologies for enhancing the access of people living in disadvantaged areas to the labour market through the capacity building and empowerment of people living within these areas. The project will;

• Establish networks of key agencies and local communities to develop and test integrated approaches to promoting access to training and employment.
• Develop and pilot new approaches to training 'community animateurs' within disadvantaged areas, together with new training materials.
• Develop new approaches to promoting the participation of local communities in the regeneration of their areas.
• Develop new methodologies for supporting learning and employment in disadvantaged areas using new information and communications technologies.
• Identify best practice models and methodologies as a basis for future strategies and intervention.

Specific objectives of the project are to:

• To bring together a network/partnership of key agencies from areas in Lancashire .
• To research best practice within Lancashire and elsewhere in the UK and Europe .
• To carry out a 'mapping' exercise of disadvantaged wards and data and of relevant existing initiatives within them.
• To share the results of initial research with transnational partners.
• To select disadvantaged wards for 'piloting' purposes.
• To develop local networks and partnerships in the areas selected involving individual colleges, local authorities, TECs, voluntary sector agencies, employers and community groups.
• To develop local initiatives in each of these areas.
• To develop training programmes on an open/flexible learning basis for 'community animateurs'.
• To establish electronic links between learning support centres at the colleges and local projects/facilities.
• To monitor and evaluate the impact of the pilots on participating agencies and local communities and to identify the key elements of a best practice model for future strategies and initiatives for disadvantaged areas.

The project targets residents of areas which are disadvantaged in labour market terms; the areas concerned all experience urban deprivation and are characterised by high unemployment and long term unemployment levels, low levels of skills and qualifications, and low incomes. Many have relatively high ethnic minority populations. Members of the target group may have had a poor experience of formal education/training and the methodologies developed through the project will seek to address this and other barriers to access to the labour market, through the development and testing of integrated 'outreach' actions, the use of new learning technologies and a more pro active approach designed to enhance community participation and empowerment.

A variety of forms of 'outreach' provision and intervention will be developed which will link a number of actions, including skills audits (aimed at obtaining practical information on individual preferences and relating these to actual job opportunities) vocational guidance and counselling, pre vocational training and job preparation, vocational 'taster' and other training courses and direct job placement services via direct links with employers (with Employment Service support). The initiatives will vary from a local facility offering an integrated range of services, to more specific initiatives targeted at particular disadvantaged groups e.g. ethnic minorities.

A core feature of the project is that it seeks to develop community involvement in the project's own initiatives and in the training and employment projects initiated by communities' themselves. In order to achieve this community capacity building will be necessary in areas in which there may be only limited experience of community organisation and leadership or project management. The partners have identified the need for 'community animateurs' to promote this process. These individuals could be existing staff employed by local authorities or voluntary sector agencies but more particularly, people drawn directly from the communities concerned. Their role would be to assist in the development of the community's organisational and management skills in the context of the need to promote training, employment opportunities and labour market integration.

 

 

Promoting Labour Market Integration through Key Skills Development

 

The "inclusion" agenda has to work at two levels. The first, which is addressed in the "Empowering" project, is the improvement of local facilities and opportunities at a collective level and the second, which is addressed in this project, is the development of skills by individuals which are relevant to their own needs and those of employers so that through gaining employment they can share the benefits of our society. Many individuals who are not members of the workforce for any length of time perceive themselves as marginal to society and do not participate in mainstream activities.

Being unemployed or not being in employment often brings with it two related problems, lack of a feeling of self confidence and self worth and lack of the kind of skills that employers look for when taking on new staff. This project aims to tackle those problems by providing local opportunities for training and education in ways which are flexible, respond to individual needs and take place in a friendly, relaxed environment.

In the current employment market the specific vocational/ technical skills attached to a particular job change at rapidly and often it is those people with broad "Key Skills" that are in the best position to take advantage of new employment opportunities. This project will offer help to individuals in developing those skills in areas such as Communication, Number, Information Technology, Working in Groups and Problem Solving which provide an excellent basis for employment.

A summary of some of the major elements of the project drawn from the project application is reproduced below:

• The main purpose of this project will be to develop and pilot innovative learning materials and methodologies for enhancing the key skills of people living in disadvantaged communities as part of an integrated 'pathway' approach to the integration of these communities into the wider labour market. The project will:
• Develop and pilot customised key skills learning packages targeted at the specific needs of the communities and disadvantaged groups.
• Develop new methodologies for delivering and supporting learning at the local level using new information and communications technologies.
• Establish networks of key agencies, social partners and local communities to pilot the materials and methodologies at community level.
• Identify models and approaches which will inform future 'mainstream' strategies and intervention.

The specific objectives are:

• To bring together a network/partnership of key agencies and partners from the areas covered by the project, including local authorities, TECs, Employment Services, employers organisations and private companies, voluntary-sector agencies, and colleges.
• To review existing materials and the extent to which these need to be customised and new materials developed and to examine approaches to key skills and development in the UK and elsewhere in the EU.
• To select 10 disadvantaged areas for 'piloting' purposes.
• To identify up to 5 mentors in each area selected
• To develop local networks and partnerships in the areas selected involving individual colleges, local authorities, TECs, voluntary agencies, employers and community groups.
• To adapt and develop learning materials focusing on the key skills required to progress to vocational training and qualifications or directly to employment. The focus will be on key skills required for the world of work which are increasingly being demanded by employers including team working, problem solving, and communication skills, as well as on 'basic' skills such as literacy and numeracy and English language skills.
• To develop learning materials for mentors, focusing on the specific needs/barriers faced by people in disadvantaged areas/groups.
• To establish a learning support network linking locally-based learning facilities with support centres based at individual colleges through the use of information and communications technologies.
• To pilot the materials and methodologies developed at the local level linking vocational guidance and assessment and key skills development with vocational 'tasters' and skills programmes, mentoring and structured work placements and recruitment.
• To monitor and evaluate the impact of the pilots on both participating organisations and trainees and identify models and methodologies which can inform future mainstream strategies and initiatives for disadvantaged areas and groups.

The project will adapt existing and develop new materials using a mix of traditional and flexible/distance learning methodologies. The materials will be piloted on an outreach basis as part of an integrated programme linking guidance counselling and assessment, pre-training, vocational taster and vocational training options. The mentoring packages and programme developed will assist trainees by linking the programme closely to the requirements of the world of work, and the involvement of employers will increase work experience and job placement opportunities.

The project will target residents of disadvantaged areas, and particular disadvantaged groups within these areas including unemployed members of ethnic minorities, long-term unemployed people, and single parents.

Important features of programmes such as this have been identified as:

• The need for early and focused assistance for those who face particular difficulties in job search, including those with literacy/numeracy problems.
• The need to "keep in touch with workplace culture".
• The primacy of motivation - this is described as "the most important attribute employers are looking to secure from a recruit".
• Employer involvement. The research found that "employment and training programmes require considerable employer participation if they are to be successful".
• These issues will be directly addressed through the project's focus on key skills and the direct involvement of employers through the mentoring system developed. A CBI study "Tackling Long Term Unemployment: A Business Agenda" identified the belief by many unemployed people that "they had not been equipped by the education and training system with literacy and numeracy skills". The survey also showed that the work unemployed people are looking for often does not fit with the trends in the labour market which employers have described.

Many of the groups targeted by the project face additional barriers to re-entry to the labour market including English language training needs, a need for child care support and poor experiences of education and training resulting in a reluctance to participate in 'mainstream' programmes.

Many key features of the project will seek to address these needs including the 'outreach' nature of the pilot initiatives, the integration of a range of measures as part of a 'pathway approach' and the use of new information and communications technologies which will enhance access by linking centrally-located servers at Learning Support Centres within the colleges with multimedia servers based locally in community centres and other local facilities, enabling residents to learn and gain access to information on training and employment opportunities at a time and place of their choosing. The direct involvement of communities in the management of local initiatives will also promote community ownership of the process.