The Working Group has continued to meet on a monthly basis, though the intention following the April meeting is to move to meeting twice a term. You’ll find meeting dates for the rest of this year below.
The Working Group has been involved in some notable pieces of work over the past few months:
We devised and put into place a project to employ a ‘Basic Skills Champion’ for 6 months to look at ways of addressing the low recruitment to Literacy and Numeracy courses in the area. This worker is now in post and we will be reporting back on the outcome of this work in future reports.
We initiated the Sheffield ‘Save ESOL’ campaign as part of a national campaign in opposition to the government’s plans to charge for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) courses. The local and national campaign has received strong backing from a wide range of organisations and has resulted in some concessions being made by the government. Locally we have held a well-attended public meeting, a lively local demonstration and have lobbied local MPs, resulting in David Blunkett signing a parliamentary motion in opposition to the proposals!
In partnership with the Area Panel, we are planning a trip to the ‘Peepul’s Centre’ in Leicester (a very successful community learning centre) in advance of the opening of the Vestry Hall.
We have agreed an ‘Adult Learning and Skills Action Plan’ for the area (copies on request from Tony Tingle on 2296156) and agreed priorities for spending the Neighbourhood Renewal ‘Access To Learning’ Fund in Burngreave and Fir Vale.
We have received reports and presentations on a range of projects and initiatives in connection with adult learning in the area including:
Burngreave Opportunities
The ‘ReadRite’ Campaign
Burngreave Celebrates Learning
The ‘School For The Environment’ Project
Burngreave Academy
The ‘What’s The Weather’ Community Learning Progamme
Unfortunately, we’ve also had to discuss, on a regular basis, the difficulties that adult learning is facing at the moment. The government’s spending priorities in this area are clearly around work-based learning and training for 16-19 year-olds, to the detriment of adult education. All adult providers, in the statutory, voluntary and community sectors, are feeling the effects of cuts in funding.
Locally, Burngreave New Deal funding for the Community Education Co-ordinators (CECs) Project in Burngreave schools will be coming towards an end. The ending of the project brings into question the continuation of the programmes of adult and family learning that the CECs have built up in the schools unless there is a clear commitment for this work to be continued. The Working Group has recently written to the schools, the LEA and New Deal to highlight the important work that the CECs have been involved in, and seeking some assurance that this work won’t be undermined when New Deal funding comes to an end.
Future Working Group meetings for 2007 will be on:
Thursday 7th June
Thursday 13th September
Thursday 8th November
All meetings at 1.30pm at the BCAF Meeting Room, 12 – 14 Burngreave Road. All Welcome!