- Case Study - Real People, Real Difference
- A Year from Now - Supporting Young mothers and vulnerable young women
- liC - HAVES (homeless and vulnerable eduction)
- Learning Ladder
- Embedding contextualised skills for life into vocational training
- Food for A Fiver
- Raising Aspirations
- Grads Norfolk
- Creative Industries
- Streetlife Soccer
- Mentoring
- Family Engagement
- Learning Communities
- liC - Bretts
- STEPS
- Ready for Work
- LSC - LID
- Supporting parents - Oriel High School
- JOIN - Joint Opportunities in NELM
- Developing Role Models
- Science on the Rails
- Fast Food from the Past
- Supported Projects
- Culture Club
Members Area
Click here to login or regsiter
Click here to login or regsiter
STEPS
The Investing in Communities skills and learning model has been developed following the very successful work of the IIC Skills for Life and the IiC HAVES projects in 2006/07 and early 2007/08. What emerged is that there was clear synergy between the two projects in engaging vulnerable learners and moving them in to learning. The key element being the transition period where both teams often work together facilitating a move from informal learning activity to the more formal vocation taster and ultimately longer 30 hour vocational course. The transition period is flexible in length to meet the needs of the learner.
The learning and skills strand:
This strand aims to support a wide range of client who have clearly identified skills for life needs but are reluctant to enrol on traditional Basic Skills courses and who are failing to find work because of their low level of skill.
- Partnership working with high schools have identified cohorts of young people in years 10 or 11 who because of low skill levels, have the potential to become NEET on leaving school (pre-NEET). In some cases these young people are already disengaging from school or are excluded from school.
- Work with Connexions have identified those who are NEET available who would benefit from skills for life embedded vocational courses to improve their employment chances. The programme offers them to develop their skills in a way that is different from their past learning experience
- Partnership with voluntary and community groups have identified a number of vulnerable adults, including those who are homeless, who require a great deal of support if they are to achieve basic skills including employability skills. These adults have usually spent a significant amount of time on benefits and have been on a number of training initiatives, none of which have moved them forward as they have failed to complete.
The identification and engagement of young people identified as pre-NEET is done in partnership with school, VTS and Connexions partners. For this group there is usually a clear vocational offer of a taster which the young person can select. Vocational Taster activities can be delivered in the school or elsewhere and can involve vocational partners and the aim is to re-engage the young person in learning and at the same time develop their basic skills through embedded skills for life activity. The taster is then followed by a longer programme (30 hour course) which is delivered jointly by vocational tutors and the Skills for life team. All vocational learning has embedded skills for life and can take place in any vocational setting and not necessarily at a college of FE. The intervention aims to raise the aspirations of this group to see progression into further learning or training as an achievable aim.
In contrast the identification and engagement of vulnerable adults or NEET involves much greater support and nurturing to move them to the formal taster stage. This is where the HAVES team working with partners in the voluntary & community sector, hostels for the homeless etc offer a range of informal learning opportunities not necessarily linked to a vocational area. This approach allows an assessment of the needs of this group and the development of more formal tasters working closely with the skills for life team. There is a transition period that is flexible in time as some learners will require more time than others to "stabilise" in terms of their learning need. Once the tasters have been agreed they then follow a process similar to that for young people leading to a longer 30 hour course with vocationally embedded skills for life. The intervention aims to raise the aspirations of this group to see progression into further learning, training and employment as an achievable aim and for those looking to employment there are additional activities offered including Ready for Work and work placement via Business in the Community or through partner organsiations.
The Capacity Building Strand:
At present much of the basic skills work in schools and colleges is carried out by skills for life specialists with little or no vocational knowledge.
This strand aims to leave a legacy of skilled practitioners to continue the work of embedding skills for life in a vocational context, with skills for life professionals delivering generic elements of vocational programmes (e.g. Health & Safety) and vocational tutors recognising skills for life needs and adapting their approach, delivery and materials to support their students.
Additionally those working with hard to reach clients may not have a structured approach to developing their client and progressing them to learning or employment, being more concerned with supporting these clients through crisis. The legacy of this scheme will allow them to develop new skills in developing and running engagement activities from the HAVES team and so enabling them to transfer these skills to work with wider groups of people.
The HAVES team will work with voluntary and community partners and statutory groups working with vulnerable and homeless to train them in the development and delivery of engagement activity using the Learning Ladder approach. Funding will be available for joint working for a 24 month period and it is hoped that sufficient evidence of the success of this approach will be collected to enable partners to seek continuation funding from statutory bodies or from alternative funding sources.
The Skills for Life team will work with learning partners to train them in the development and delivery of embedded skills for life in a number of vocational areas as well as the production of vocationally embedded skills for life resource material. Funding will be available for joint working for a 24 month period and it is hoped that sufficient evidence of the success of this approach will be collected to enable partners to seek continuation funding from statutory bodies or from alternative funding sources. The resource material will be available to all partners including schools as they begin to introduce the new diplomas.
The delivery cycle:
It has been demonstrated from the work already carried out by the Skills for Life Team and the HAVES team that this work cannot achieve lasting results without a clear cycle of activity which allows for an introduction phase, a joint working and familiarisation phase and an exit phase.
There will be a 24 month engagement and delivery cycle for each vocational strand. The first 6 months will concentrate on the identification of partners, their engagement and the initial training to develop the skills necessary to deliver the model. The next 12 month will allow the consolidation of these skills through joint delivery and working of the partners with the HAVES or Skills for Life team. The final 6 months will see a reduction of input from the HAVES or Skills for Life team as a phase withdrawal starts to happen as the teams move into new geographical and vocational areas.
The vocational areas to be covered are:
- Construction
- Health & Social Care
- Creative Arts & Media
- Tourism and associated Retail
- Horticulture
- Engineering
