Manchester Adult Education Service Community Learning Fund 2021-2022

The main purpose of the Community Learning Fund (CLF) is to reach disadvantaged communities and individuals, to enable them to participate in learning and to progress towards further learning and/or sustainable employment.

The aim of the fund is to build the skills levels of Manchester residents while complementing other available provision and providing progression routes to further learning, employment and volunteering.

The fund is seeking to support projects and ways of working that can provide people with their ‘first step’ into learning, increased confidence and increased motivation and ability to access further learning opportunities. It is recognised that the community and voluntary sector can provide some of the most innovative ways of providing learning opportunities to groups that have traditionally been hard to engage.

The key objectives of this activity are:

• To deliver a programme of community learning activities which enable adults to move
• towards sustained employment and volunteering/work experience and which do one or more of the following:
• improve employability and essential skills.
• provide opportunities for learners to become involved in the local community.
• increase learners’ confidence.
• have a positive effect on learners’ health and wellbeing.
• To encourage Manchester residents who are unemployed or in low level employment and
• have low level skills to engage in learning and progress to further training opportunities, particularly targeting those who mainstream provision struggles to engage, including those aged over 50.
• To provide Information, Advice and Guidance for unemployed and/or under employed residents about further learning, volunteering or mainstream employment services and/or getting work

To apply for Community Learning funding, you must be:

• An established organisation proposing learning activities with the target group
• Proposing learning activities which are aimed at adults aged 19 and over
• Targeting residents who are out of work or excluded from the labour market for various reasons and people who have temporary, casual, part-time or low-skilled jobs who need to improve their skills and confidence to obtain a more secure place in the labour market
• Able to show that all tutors involved in the project are suitably trained and experienced (including enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check)
• Able to give a named person responsible for completing the necessary quality assurance tasks associated with this funding

A range of organisations are eligible to apply for this funding, including:

• Voluntary and community unincorporated associations (e.g., community centre, group with a
• basic constitution)
• Registered charities
• Community benefit societies registered as industrial and provident societies
• Community interest companies or organisations of another type if you operate as a social
• enterprise and principally reinvest your surpluses for social benefit (for example, with at least
• three unrelated Directors and a clear clause within your governing document about how you
• reinvest surpluses into the community)
• Any other organisation which has a written governing document and is managed by a board of governors, trustees or management committee

Projects will be funded a minimum of £27,000 up to a maximum of £167,000.

Complete the online Expression of Interest Form here

Stage 1 Expression of Interest must be submitted by 7 May 2021, 12pm
Stage 2 Second Stage Applications must be submitted by 7 June 2021, 12pm