Action for Communities Partnerships Launch

The Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership is pleased to be working with Surrey Learning and Skills Council to facilitate and develop three Action for Communities Partnerships across the county. Inaugural meetings of the three partnerships took place in October-November 2007, and included discussion about community learning needs across the county. The following PowerPoint presentations are now available to download:

Community Learning Needs in North Surrey
Community Learning Needs in South East Surrey
Community Learning Needs in South West Surrey
Surrey Cultural Strategy
Learning difficulties and disabilities in Surrey

For more information about Action for Communities Partnerships, please contact Kevin Delf (kevin.delf@surreyllp.org.uk or 01483 487892)

Partnership Brokering for 2007-2011 European Social Funding

At a regional conference at Sandown Park in September 2007 the 'South East ESF Framework for 2007-10' [Click title to download] was launched. This details the proposed European Social Fund activities (co-financed by the LSC, DWP or SEEDA) which will be opened up to tender over coming years. It is likely that there will be a requirement for larger bids, covering all or part of South East England.

Organisations who wished to tender for LSC ESF contracts were asked to submit a pre-qualifying questionnaire (PQQ) by late September. By mid November successful organisations will be notified, and the definitive Invitations to Tender will be issued. Not all organisations will have submitted a PQQ, or some may be eliminated at this stage. Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership would like to help potential partners come together to deliver projects in the county, by asking those with an interest in specific areas of the ESF Framework to share their contact details on our website so as to broker new relationships for collaborative bidding.

If you are interested in any of the activities on the DOWNLOADABLE WORD DOCUMENT [Click title to download] please complete the form with your contact details, and whether you would wish to lead or partner a bid and return it by email to landrews@surreyllp.org.uk and we will publish your response on this page for prospective partners to see.

Partner expressions of interest now available to download here Last update 26/10/07

New Lives Through Learning
A new booklet celebrating the stories of Surrey communities who have decided to improve the quality of their lives through learning is now available to download. It highlights some of the impressive stories that have come to the attention of the Partnership. Every project is different and worth reflecting in its own right, but some common threads appear. For example, it is clearly very important for the first ideas and impetus to come from people living in the very community that is the focus of the project. There are always obstacles to overcome so it requires plenty of imagination to see what can be achieved and plenty of hard work to see it through.

On many occasions the people pushing for change in the lives of their community have forged relationships with several agencies. It is difficult to see how many of these projects could have succeeded without the collaborative efforts of various organisations, each making its own specialist contribution. In some cases new collaborative structures have been created to support projects.

A wide range of funders have contributed to the success of these initiatives, especially in helping get ideas off the ground. Once established, most projects are able to survive through a mixture of mainstream funding for learning supplied through colleges or adult and community learning, voluntary work, self-finace and various ingenious ways of raising funds.

Certainly many learners have had to be coaxed into taking part, and a common feature of all these projects is the time spent by the leaders on creating the conditions for people to feel confident enough to participate. However, this booklet shows what sheer joy, fun and satisfaction learning gives people who are often unfairly labelled as 'hard-to-reach'.

You will also find plenty of evidence that community learning is good for the local economy and the well-being of society: people getting back into work, going on to further learning, keeping off their sick beds, giving freely of their time to help others. It is one marvellous story after another.

New Lives Through Learning- Good Practice in the Surrey Community

Learning Campaigns & Funding Alerts

Funding and campaigns newsletter Autumn 2007

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Stop Press!

New Adult Opportunities Leaflet available to download.

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Adult and Community Learning Tender

During Autumn 2006 Surrey Learning & Skills Council (LSC), in partnership with Surrey County Council (SCC) sought to contract out the delivery of leisure and community learning for adults in Surrey in three 'Lots', with contracts to commence in August 2007. Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership invited interested organisations to expressed an interest in supporting the delivery of the future service, and this information is being shared publically to enable partnership working amongst potential bidders.

All expressions of interest received were brought together in a table which can be downloaded here

Hearing Their Voice

Guildford CLP has led an innovative youth consultation project, "Voicebox", for the Guildford Local Strategic Partnership. More...

No Childcare so No Course for Me!

SLLP partners have expressed the need for increased childcare provision to support learning activities. In response, a mobile creche has been identified by MVCLP, ECLP, SCLP, and RCLP. More....

Customer Service Above and Beyond

The Spelthorne CLP has sourced £15,000 from BAA to support training in the retail sector. A professional training manual will be produced and three free train-the-trainer sessions will be offered. More...

SLLP Supports Learning Communities

The Partnership is keen to promote a culture of learning within communities in Surrey. To this end it plans to focus on six areas. More...

Adult Learners Celebrated

Adult learners, tutors and groups were presented with Surrey Adult Learners' Awards at a special ceremony for 150 people at The Runnymede Centre in Addlestone on Tuesday 23rd May 2006. More...

Latest Stories

Action for Communities Partnerships Launch

Action for Communities seeks to place learning in the community at the centre of economic and social well being. It aims to maximise opportunities for adults to learn in their communities and to make best use of all available resources to support them. Alongside this strategy NIACE and the LSC are supporting the setting up of groups to advise on planning for Personal and Community Development Learning.

In November 2007 the Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership arranged the first meetings of these groups, which are to be called Action for Communities Partnerships. At their inaugural meetings, the three Action for Communities Partnerships (covering North, South West and South East Surrey) received information about community learning needs and gaps in provision. As a result work is now underway to develop priorities for future planning of provision and to link this with the Surrey Cultural Strategy and with the Surrey Local Area Agreement

Gearing Up For 2012

Organised by the Surrey Local Government Association 'Surrey and the 2012 Effect' provided the opportunity for delegates from public, private and voluntary sectors to focus on the main issues, opportunities and threats surrounding the 2012 Olympics. Duncan Goodhew MBE, Olympic Gold medallist, set the scene by providing us with an insight into his Olympic experience and the inspiration sport can provide. Paddy Herlihy (South East England Development Agency) explained his role in coordinating the South East offer for the 2012 games.
Areas of interest explored on the day included:

Sport: How to maximise the sporting and health benefits generated by the 2012 games
Tourism: How will Surrey attract the 2012 visitor: what other opportunities are there?
Transport and Infrastructure: Will our transport links cope
Volunteering: What volunteering opportunities and threats will the new games bring?
Businesses what opportunities and threats are there for Surrey Businesses?
Culture and Communities: How will the residents of Surrey benefit from the 2012 games?
Skills and Employment: How do we upskill our workforce in preparation for the 2012 Games?

Learning is relevant to many of these themes.

The key message? We have a golden opportunity to harness the enthusiasm of the Olympics for the benefit of individuals and communities within Surrey.

Get Set For Adult Learners Week 2008

Adult Learners Week 2008 will run from 17th to 23rd May, promoting the message that learning is good for your health, self-esteem and employability. It is the UK's largest learning campaign to promote education and training and a chance for you to get involved.
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is supporting the campaign with a range of materials, websites and information pages to help make your event a success. An 'Event in a Box' pack, motivational magazine for potential learners, and help with media approaches is available either by calling 0116 204 4200 or online at www.alw.org.uk or if you have decided to hold an event help is also available by email alw@niace.org.uk.

During the week themed events will take place across the country:

Saturday and Sunday 17/18 May Cultural Diversity Weekend
Monday 19 May Adult learners week awards
Thursday 22 May Learning at work day
Friday 23 May Silver surfers' day

Adult Learners Week Awards 2008 are presented to individuals or groups of learners to recognise and celebrate their achievements (and your hard work). Nominations have to be submitted by 25 January. Download the easy-to-complete nomination forms from www.alw.org.uk/nominate.

Several themes have been developed this year's Adult Learners Week, including well-being and happiness, changing expectations and perceptions in the third sector, citizenship, the changing world of work and technological changes among others. The Learning Week is an excellent opportunity to promote your services and attract new learners in museums, libraries, community centres, shops, cafes, churches, shopping centres etc. The opportunities are endless, and all this is backed by a high profile national media campaign to raise awareness amongst the public. Please let us know if we can be of further help or if you would like to find interested partners in your area for joint events or projects.

Please let us know if we can be of further help or if you would like to find partners in your area.

VC Skills Celebrates Project Success

VC Skills has been an exciting and unique regional partnership project between the European Social Fund, learndirect, skills for life professional development centres across the South East, Portsmouth Housing Association and, in Surrey, the Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership and MB Learning. Its aim, to provide Skills for Life awareness training for individuals and for workers (paid and unpaid) in the voluntary and community sector. In Surrey over 40 individuals received training and the courses were very well received:

�This course really made me think again about the assumptions I make about people's abilities�
�...I would recommend it to others in similar situations as a good basic course which can help adult learner supporters.�

Surrey learners' interests in undertaking the training included:

Helping parents who are not confident in areas of numeracy and literacy.
Informing staff in 'Victim Support' whose clients often have to write letters and appeal statements.
Ensuring people completing housing applications have appropriate support.
Supporting members of a mental health group.

Keynote speakers for the Celebration Event on 16th October at the Kingswood Golf and Country Club were: John Bird - Founder of the Big Issue and Roger Hammett - Learning Project Manager for BBC RAW Campaign.