This week, LSEN hosted a meeting about Community Learning in Manchester. It was the third such meeting, and took place in the impressive and inspiring surroundings of Gorton Monastery. Over 30 people attended from a wide variety of sectors and organisations around Manchester.
Walt Crowson gave a background to this series of community learning meetings, and updated on ongoing work in the key themes that have been identified so far (though by no means excluding further themes/activities to be identified). These are:
- Community Learning across the City – Mapping, Publicity and Promotion, Programmes, Accreditation etc
- Learning Festivals (including Open Education Week in March; Adult Learners Week in May)
- Community Learning Champions and Digital Learning Champions (work currently being undertaken as part of the Go On Manchester initiative)
- Community Learning Trusts
- Co-operative learning and Self Organised Learning
- Community engagement - approaches and strategies
- Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing
We picked up many of these themes throughout the meeting - some notes and thoughts to follow...
Manchester Community Learning wiki
The Manchester Community Learning wiki is a space to document and coordinate activity in developing community learning initiatives and a community learning strategy for Manchester. It is a wiki (which means that it is an editable website) - and it is intended to be a collaborative workspace for anyone who is interested in any aspect of this work. There was a brief demonstration of the wiki and how it works (there is a brief tutorial on the site - but if you have any questions about or issues with using the wiki, email [email protected]). We strongly encourage people to use this space - it's intended to be a community space for sharing ideas and resources and keeping the activity of this group going between meetings. It's still very much in development - and it needs your help to develop it!
http://manchestercommunitylearning.wikispaces.com/
Open Badges
We're thinking about Open Badges at the moment as an interesting initiative to support informal learning - I've written about open badges in my last blog post about open badges. Open Badges are a method of accrediting informal learning that can be issued by any organisation, or individual - not just educational institutions. See Cormac's presentation about open badges, and see our wiki for further info and to engage with some of the work we're doing.
There was lots of discussion about this initiative (indeed, so much discussion, and so little time to feed back, that I would actively invite everyone present to add thoughts and comments from their group's discussion to the wiki). There was plenty of enthusiasm as well as criticism of the initiative - which is great to see an emerging debate about whether and how open badges might be appropriate to organisations and communities in Manchester. There is a lot of work yet to do in exploring open badges' viability and legitimacy, on 'localising' them for particular contexts (not confining them to 'corporate' or 'Western' models of learning), and in thinking through the kinds of support that learners need.
There will be a monthly meeting about open badges in Manchester. The next meeting is on Tuesday 12th February, from 3-5, in Madlab.
http://manchestercommunitylearning.wikispaces.com/Open+Badges
Community Learning Trusts
Walt gave an update on the development of Community Learning Trusts across the North West. Then, there was a presentation from Mark Ravenhall, director of Policy and Impact in NIACE, on the background to Community Learning Trusts, and the wider context of funding for adult skills and learning in England. Putting some budgetary figures on it, he pointed out that there is £3 billion allocated for adult skills budget; £210 million of which is allocated for community learning. The pilot CLTs that have been developed over the past year are intended to give some insight into how best to spend that £210 million - through what mix of partners, with what purpose, etc. But Mark also reflected on how much more could be done - and made us think about what could be done with the £3 billion as opposed to the £210 million budget.
Mark noted to 'watch this space' for updates in the next few months about the progress and outcomes of the pilot projects. He also advised that people who are interested in learning more about Community Learning Trusts take a look at ALL pilot projects, and not just those in their region. Pilots were selected on the basis of their diversity of approaches, so each CLT is worth studying in its own right. For further info, see list of CLT pilots, key objectives for CLTs, and prospectus for CLTs.
There is currently some interest in developing a Community Learning Trust in Wythenshawe. What this should look like, or who should be involved, is still very much in discussion. But one route it could take is to build on the Community Reporters work that has been championed by Peoples Voice Media. Hannah Powell from Macc gave an introduction to the Community Reporters work happening in Manchester, as one potential route for community-led learning. There is so much potential in enabling people to tell their stories - you can see some of these on MyManchester and the CommunityReporters website Find out more about Community Reporters from Peoples Voice Media, and if you want to get info on this doing this kind of training in the voluntary sector, contact Hannah Powell [email protected]
If you are interested in Community Learning Trusts, or related initatives in Wythenshawe, please get in touch with myself or Walt, or on the wiki.
http://manchestercommunitylearning.wikispaces.com/Community+Learning+Trusts
Learning Festivals
Adult Learners' Week is an annual event, coordinated by NIACE, to celebrate adult learning, and adult learners, across the country. LSEN has been coordinating Adult Learners Week activity in Manchester for the last number of years. This year, however, NIACE have changed the contract, creating a North West region out of the individual areas in the past. LSEN is now working with a range of partners across the North West - individuals and organisations - to coordinate this year's activity across the region.
Adult Learners Week takes place on 18th-24th May this year. If you are planning any events around this time, you could consider holding it during this week, and signpost it to other learners who will be looking out for events at this time. Or if you'd like to use the opportunity to run an event, please do so too! We would simply ask that you let us know, to help with coordination and cross-promotion.
Anna Bunney of Manchester Museum gave an overview of the Learning Museum project, and opportunities that exist in museum-based learning. This was also taken up by Jo Ward, member of the North West ALW steering group, who detailed the work and potential for learning across the cultural sector and across the region. (I also thought here that there may be some traction in following up or building on the work done by LSEN and partners in the MOSI-ALONG project - see here and here.)
There will be a meeting of the North West steering group in the LSEN offices (in Macc) on Monday 11th Feb, 1.30 - 4.30. Everyone is welcome - please get in touch if you are interested. The North West Adult Learners Week site is at http://www.alwnw.co.uk/ and the national site is at http://www.alw.org.uk/about-alw
Educational Centres Association
Chris Minter, who has been working on a sustainability plan for the ECA, gave an overview of the history of the ECA, and outlined some of the work it is undertaking at local, national and European levels. I've written before about the ECA on this blog. As I said in that post, the ECA is a great organisation with a long and rich history (and archive) - but it is currently struggling for funding and with rekindling some of the energy and vigour it has had in the past. One idea that Chris put forward was to strengthen activity in the regions, as it once did: to encourage and support more people to meet up with other like-minded and/or similarly motivated learners in their locality and region. Chris put it nicely that the work we are all doing at a local level, we can use the ECA to publicise, promote, and perhaps coordinate at a national and even European level. Chris travelled from Brighton to participate in this event, and it was great to see him again.
Keeping this work going - the future of LSEN
To finish up the meeting, Walt indicated that there was lots happening, but that it is currently difficult for LSEN to coordinate and promote this activity better, much as we'd like to. We are currently inviting anyone who is interested in the work we do (some of which is reflected here), and motivated to see it continuing, to help develop a strategy for this work, and for LSEN itself. There are already some good ideas - e.g. Jo Ward recommended to make stronger links with the Greater Manchester Strategy (by New Economy). If you have any ideas, or if you would like to get involved with a working group to support the future development of LSEN, please get in touch.
Reflections
My own reflections on the meeting were that it was a highly interesting meeting, well-attended by a diverse range of participants, and showcasing many great initiatives around the city (and country) that are contributing to a community learning offer. The shame was that, almost ironically, with so much work to present, it didn't give quite enough time to share and discuss. We could have spent the entire morning on just one of the agenda items. And I'd love to have heard more from each individual person participating about what was interesting to their organisation or community or context. So, this is a bit of a weakness for me: by signposting so much, we lose the opportunity to share ideas, to tease them out, to be creative and innovative.
I'd therefore like to encourage everyone - whether you were at the meeting, or whether you are just randomly reading this blogpost (does that happen?), to get involved with this discussion and activity as an ongoing process. The main space we are hoping to use to do so is the Manchester Community Learning wiki - as it is a collaborative space that people can use in their own time, without trying to squeeze everything into a two-hour meeting. You can also leave comments on this blog post - they are most welcome. And of course, you can always email myself (Cormac) or Walt - [email protected] and [email protected] - with any ideas, comments, suggestions, proposals, projects, partnerships.... We're always keen to strengthen the vibrancy of learning opportunities in Manchester.
The key thing, I think, is to bring together a series of working groups on the themes and activity identified so far - as well as perhaps new areas we haven't yet covered. What within this work are you interested in, and what would you like to get involved with?