Transcript Document
Link Up – A Skills for Life Initiative Skills for Life • Boosting demand • Raising standards • Ensuring capacity • Learner achievement Delivering Higher Standards: “To find better ways of harnessing (volunteers’) commitment and enthusiasm in the classroom and . . . explore ways of using volunteer helpers more creatively . . . outside the learning context” Skills for Life, 2001 p. 52 The Link Up Project • Funded by the DfES and Home Office • 18 regional projects – two in the Prison Service and one in the Army • Target to recruit 6000 Supporters • Living and working in disadvantaged wards • Diversity / variety of roles What is Link Up? Volunteering Voluntary and Community Sector Capacity Building Skills for Life Link Up Supporters are different because… They are: • Living and/or working in the communities • In touch with hard to reach groups • Developing own skills as well as reengaging others with learning What do they do? • With potential learners – – – – identify screen – informal and formal awareness of learning opportunities signpost • With learners – support literacy, numeracy and language skill development Training Framework Unit One – Working in the Sector (12 hours) Basic Skills Support P L A C E M E N T Lit / Num Level 2 Tests Unit Two – Supporting Learners (12 hours) Unit Three – Specialist options (12 hours) LITERACY NUMERACY ESOL PROGRESSION TO LEVEL 3 AND LEVEL 4 Link Up the model • • • • Supporter recruitment Supporter management and support Working in partnership Responding to context Remote Model • Army • Voluntary and Community Sector • LearnDirect Achievements • Recruited over 6,400 Link Up Supporters Over 40% progressed to complete the full qualification • Over 550 supporters have passed the National Tests at Level 2 • Developed and piloted a new national qualification • Worked with over 400 diverse organisations, many in the VCS Contribution to national, regional and local strategies • • • • • • Skills for Life 21st Century Skills Widening Participation Neighbourhood Renewal Community Cohesion Voluntary and Community Sector Capacity Building – Working Together More than a qualification • Focuses on deprived communities • Tackles a major cause of poverty • Helps local people to help themselves and their neighbours • Gets away from the more traditional and distant organs of the state • Volunteers build bridges between the community and the more formal sector Taking the Model forward • Project to mainstream • Other areas • Dissemination • Contextualisation