3B: What is 'success' in meeting the needs and interests of learners?

 

Rima is from Beirut and her first language is Arabic.

She says, ‘I come here because I want to learn English so I can help my children. It is very good teaching here because she helps me with what I say and how I do for reading and writing.

‘I can do words and sentences and speaking. I do better now understanding from listening to the teacher.’

Abdul is hearing impaired. He has been coming to the centre for seven months.

‘My name is Abdul. I came here to improve my pronunciation. This is difficult when you are learning a new language and you are Deaf. I have a problem with my hearing so I cannot pronounce things well. They try to help me with my writing but I have difficulty with my listening.

‘This is my first time in this centre and I have been learning for seven months. I do elementary literacy. I am enjoying this college. This centre is very good!’

Some providers have revisited the design of their courses in the light of the national curricula for literacy, numeracy and ESOL.

One local authority has reduced the number of different levels of course offered, but now targets courses more clearly on specific learner groups. For example in ESOL, the authority offers three Entry Level 2 groups, one for those whose main concern is to improve their literacy skills, another which is a fast-track programme for refugees and asylum-seekers and a third for long-term residents of the UK who need to improve all aspects of their use of English. Summer programmes and groups are being developed to run on Saturdays and Sundays to meet the needs of particular sections of the community.

One adult education college is developing an energy conservation course for ESOL learners in partnership with the local housing department. The aim is to train representatives who will be able to develop energy awareness within their communities using either their mother tongue or English.

Barking and Dagenham Council made use of the Union Learning Fund and funding from the Adult Basic Skills Initiative to transform learning in the workplace. The council worked closely with union learning representatives to bring about the changes. The project coordinator, herself a union learning representative for the GMB, and the council training officer, led the transformation.

The leisure and environmental services department of the council was a focus of their attention. But it required some inventive thinking initially to engage with the workers. The two officers came up with the idea of setting up in the recreation area of one of the local refuse depots in the build-up to Christmas. They took a digital camera and a computer and encouraged workers to come in and learn how to make personalised Christmas cards. The plan was initially greeted with scepticism, but the response was positive and over 25 employees went on to take other basic skills and IT courses the following year.

An outreach project ran with from January 2003 until March 2004. It was funded via the European Social Fund. There were five tutors, appointed to work throughout the North Lincolnshire area. They went through intensive training initially, and all gained new skills for example in ICT, educational advice and guidance and basic skills. A key factor was their energy, enthusiasm and willingness to work collaboratively.

Team members offered first-rung provision in basic skills and/or ICT in a wide range of new venues within communities that previously had had no local access to learning. Learners also had local access to information and advice on further opportunities and progression.

The project was successful in encouraging over 300 new learners into education. Many of these were hard-to-reach learners in areas of socio-economic and geographical deprivation.

Good partnerships were established with libraries, SureStart, and various local projects.

Classes started via the outreach project have continued and increased in size. There are now groups where they didn’t exist before.

Hackney Council contracts with a community organisation to deliver a range of projects including Operaction Hackney. On this project, learners were involved in devising, writing, producing and performing a community opera.

This was the vehicle for the development of their language and literacy skills. The project, which began in February 2003, was borough-wide, with classes running in 13 community venues, and supported by professional musicians. One hundred and seventy learners took part. The project was highly successful with disaffected learners. The finished work was showcased at Hackney Empire in November 2004.

There’s more detail about this successful project on the ALI good practice database