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

Matondo is from the Congo. He came to ‘Fun for Fathers’ with Henry, aged 5. It was the first family learning event he had attended.

The Brinnington Learning Bus is funded through the single regeneration budget. It provides a relaxed and supportive learning environment.

There is a timetable and people on the estate know where it will be, when it will arrive and what is available. All courses are free to Brinnington community residents.

The focus of the learning is basic skills with family literacy, language and numeracy courses playing a major role. Parents who would not dream of going into a school or other venue are confident about attending programmes on the bus.

Take Maria, for example. She has four young children and works as a carer at a local residential home for the elderly. She started with one of the first family literacy courses on the bus. She then attended a literacy course, also on the Learning Bus, for two years. She passed the national literacy test at Level 1.

She moved on to join a Learning Bus numeracy class and has passed the national numeracy test at Entry Level 3. She has also attended Learning Bus courses on first aid and local history as well as three summer schools.

A family learning course on Mehndi (hand-painting) was held at a Bangladeshi centre. Mothers and children learned the practical skills of hand-painting as well as its cultural significance.

During the session the adults spontaneously began to explore the role of women in Bangladeshi society and in Britain. They expressed a lack of self-esteem, which was a barrier to learning and they wanted their daughters to have a different experience.

Through discussion, helping each other and recognising other achievements, some gained the confidence to join an ESOL group.

One provider has an effective strategy called ‘Including Men’, which is coordinated and promoted through a working group representing different providers. The group mapped provision, commissioned research and supported projects. Among these are Literacy Through Football, Active Dads in Sure Start programmes, an allotment project and tasters aimed at male learners on family learning weekends. The Literacy Through Football programme is accredited through the regional Open College Network. It encourages participation by men and is very popular with children and adults. It is run in conjunction with the local professional league team and the course ends with a presentation ceremony in the football stadium.

In the following example, a treasure trail was used to help participants use a range of literacy, numeracy and IT skills. It also introduced local people to some of the facilities in their area, and even led to the development of a family history course because of the interest shown by participants in the trail.

The Family Treasure Trail was a joint initiative between family learning and library services. Families were invited to join an Easter Treasure Trail and discover more about their local area and history. Around 15 families were recruited through posters, leaflets and word of mouth. Participants enrolled at Tipton Library and started by downloading and printing a map from the website MultiMap. ICT tutors were on hand to help. The map acted as a guide as they followed the route of the trail and answered the questions. Several questions related to information plaques on statues and buildings in the area. These required careful reading and working out of dates.

The trail took families into Healthpoint, a local resource of consumer health information situated inside a large health centre. Here they were given a leaflet about services and a healthy snack. The search also took in the local railway station, where participants had to work out what train they would need to catch in order to get to Wolverhampton by 11.00 on a Saturday morning. Tipton has a small heritage centre packed with artefacts and information and answering the questions here required careful searching and observation. Finally, after playing the first few bars of an old song used by narrowboat navigators when ‘legging’ through the mile-long Netherton Tunnel, the participants received a well-earned Easter egg.

Family Learning Works is a partnership project in the West Midlands, funded by the European Social Fund. It aims to improve literacy and numeracy skills in the workplace. The provider recognises that the biggest barrier to improving basic skills in the workplace is that people find it difficult to acknowledge that they have a problem. Engaging individuals through an interest in their children’s learning is a non-threatening way of helping learners take the first step.

The programme provides the company with a trained family learning coordinator, who designs a free programme to meet the individual needs of employees and the company. The programme can be offered free on-site or at a local venue.

Employers commit to supporting staff in improving their skills. Many employers are not aware that their employees had problems because they had found strategies to hide their difficulties. Open learning materials have been developed with activities for learners to complete with their children at home and exercises to extend their own understanding of what their child is learning in school. The modules are accredited through the local Open College Network.

Comments from this group of learners from ASDA include, ‘All through my secondary school I used to panic.’ ‘To be honest, I didn’t usually do things with the children before this.’ ‘I left school at 16 because my parents didn’t believe in girls going to college. This has given me the chance I missed.’