The Tes FE Awards 2019 takes place on Friday 22 March. The deadline for buying “early bird” tickets is Friday 15 February. For more information, visit tesfeawards.co.uk.
Adult and community education is an area of the FE and skills sector that covers an expansive demography - there are people who learn in order to gain skills which enable them to better support their children’s education, there are those for whom learning provides an essential lifeline or a step closer to employment, and there are those who learn for leisure.
At the Tes FE Awards 2018, Lancashire Adult Learning (LAL) was named adult and community learning provider of the year. It offers over 2,000 courses across 300 venues, and its success is astounding - a 99.9 per cent retention rate with 99.4 per cent of community learners achieving their end-of-course target. The big question is, how do they do it?
Principal Amanda Melton explains that unlike most “off-the-shelf” college courses, LAL provides a “unique service”. She says: “No two learners are the same. Whoever comes through the door, you really have to understand what that person wants to get out of the experience, what they can already do, and what they want to develop further. If you can create a plan for that individual, you know you’re going to be successful.”
Championing the importance of learning
While creating personalised, meaningful experiences is the key to retention, there is perhaps a greater challenge: getting learners through the door in the first place. This is where the organisation’s strategic approach comes into play. Relationships with larger agencies afford it the opportunity to provide greater targeted support to more adults.
Melton says: “One of the things that LAL does that may be a little bit different is to take a big approach to working with larger strategic partners such as the county council, the Department for Work and Pensions and the regional health trust.”
Within the community, there are specialist community learning development officers who work with over 200 partners to take the learning where it’s most needed. Their role includes enlisting people of influence within the community, who can then go on to champion the importance of learning to those who might otherwise find engagement with education a daunting prospect.
Melton adds: “This isn’t something you can advertise through print media. You need to go out and find the customer.”
Outreach networks
Those champions may be teachers, or parents who’ve already experienced family learning and can encourage others within their communities to get involved. Similar outreach networks are in place in doctors’ surgeries, libraries, mosques, churches, many multi-faith groups and within the Job Centre. One of LAL’s most successful outreach methods is through its partnerships with housing associations.
“We have strong links with housing associations who want to support their residents,” says Melton. She explains that the classes might be around budgeting, eating healthily or essential employability skills to help people get their first job. “It’s always about trying to use the available networks rather than trying to reinvent the wheel,” she adds.
The largest impact on referrals is through word of mouth. However, Melton is clear that those opportunities for engagement rely on ensuring there is an appealing offer and a friendly face available in the venues where LAL’s target audience is like to gather, such as outside schools, in bail hostels, in prisons, in refuge centres for women who’ve been victims of domestic violence, in rehabilitation centres and in drug and alcohol abuse centres.
Identifying the need for support
She continues: “Where we identify places that are likely to have a volume of adults who are in need of our support, then it’s about ensuring we use the people who are working in those areas, or existing students who are able to share the love.”
Over 11,000 learners use Lancashire Adult Learning services and while winning the 2018 Tes FE Award was a great testament to its success, the organisation is ambitious to support even more adults into finding jobs they enjoy and making a positive contribution to society. Melton says: “Once they are in those jobs, they will be able to upskill further and to go into higher skilled jobs. That creates an environment in which their children and families can see how those jobs are making their lives better. That raises the aspirations of the whole county.”
The Tes FE Awards 2019, sponsored by the Education and Training Foundation, takes place on Friday 22 March. This year the awards will also host the AoC Beacon Awards. The deadline for buying “early bird” tickets is Friday 8 February. For more information, visit tesfeawards.co.uk.
