501-03 EDUCATION PROVIDER OUTREACH ACTIVITY

Community Learning Development Resource 501 – 03

EDUCATION PROVIDER OUTREACH ACTIVITY

 

SUMMARY

How do providers of education and training opportunities for adults reach out into communities and neighbourhoods to access people to learning opportunities? Research into ‘Capturing the Voice of Potential Learners’, included visiting five provider outreach projects all working in the community with non-participating learners.

These were some of the things we discovered:

 

  • All the projects required the workers to be working out in the local community, and in most cases to be based in accommodation outside the large provider institutions

 

  • All the workers networked with a variety of local agencies and organisations in the community

 

  • They all told us how important it was to gain local knowledge of the community

 

  • They all felt that the outreach work needed a considerable lead in time to gain the knowledge and to begin to build contacts and relationships with local people and organisations

 

  • Establishing trust and acceptance with potential clients was constantly needed before any ideas of learning could be shared and opened up

 

  • The achievements by single workers or very small teams were impressive particularly in forming non-formal groups and opening up learning possibilities with existing community groups

 

  • Collaboration and partnerships appeared to be essential the workers felt that having more than one outreach initiative working in the same area could be confusing for local people and self-defeating for the workers and providers

 

  • Individual workers needed to make choices about how they worked and although they had opportunities to learn from other workers, they all found themselves working in ways for which there was little in the way of a handbook or a guide.

 

The workers identified advice for providers of adult learning opportunities, coming from the outreach work:

 

  • The identification for providers, of the institutional barriers, experienced by local people – there is little point in saying –

’ our college reception staff are friendly and welcoming’

    –  if people are not confident to even set foot inside the building’

 

  • Ideas about how to overcome the barriers – the comfort zone for non-confident learners is within their territory

 

  • Advice to providers about what wasn’t working in relation to the recruitment of potential learners, and why – the need for pre-entry confidence and individual capacity-building and supported entry

 

  • Representing the learners and community groups – their views and needs within the provider planning processes – learning opportunities that are relevant and responsive to needs

 

The workers identified a range of common functions and roles, within their work:

 

  • Referral, advocacy, brokerage on behalf of potential learners – with agencies and providers

 

  • Providing advice, information and guidance for individuals

 

  • Providing learner support – arranging transport, organising child-care, etc.

 

  • Giving time to individual potential learners for conversation, listening, and for responding

 

  • Organising and managing activities, groups and learning programmes

 

  • Publicising and advertising what was on offer through their work

 

  • Recruiting potential learners into provider programmes.

 

TWO KEY OUTREACH  INTERVENTIONS WERE IDENTIFIED

 

1. Work with the learners where they are at, and help them develop their own individual self-confidence, and their desire and capacity to participate, and to build their own individual capacity as learners.

 

Individuals and small groups of non-intending learners can be encouraged to gain confidence, to identify their own learning needs and to explore their own awareness, motivation, readiness and abilities to succeed – and to begin to participate, if:

 

  • contact is made at an individual and inter-personal level

 

  • time is given for conversation and to be listened to

 

  • they feel trust and friendship, rather than intervention and intrusion

 

  • advice and guidance is informal and conversational

 

  • they feel safe and comfortable (in their comfort zone)

 

  • they are not pressured ( their individual needs, starting points, readiness, hopes, fears and expectations)

 

  • personal development opportunities are offered sensitively in a familiar and friendly environment, at their pace

 

  • they are enabled to feel successful

 

This is about offering inexperienced, non-confident, disenfranchised learners support, without a concern to recruit them into formal education and training. There is a concern to enable them to progress into education and training – but as and when it is appropriate and they are self-motivated and concerned to do so.

 

Adult learning as an opportunity, not a requirement.

 

2. Work to develop suitable learning opportunities within community settings that will connect with non-participating learners and begin to help them become conscious learners

 

This is the area of ‘first-steps’ provision and needs to be suitable for non-confident learners. It may include:

 

  • Individual and collective opportunities for personal growth and development, supported as required

 

  • Social and community development activities, where informal and non-formal learning happens and formal learning is not on the agenda, e.g., parents and toddlers groups

 

  • Formal learning opportunities, if appropriate as ‘fun sessions’ or taster sessions for more substantial course or programmes

 

  • Emphasis on short learning experiences with likelihood of learning success and quick confirmation of success

 

  • Formal learning opportunities requested by the learners, e.g., first-aid courses; food hygiene; home safety

 

Providers may support the development of this provision designed to encourage non-confident learners to progress and take-up learning opportunities within mainstream provision. However the concern to widen participation and recruit new learners, may challenge the slower support and nurturing approaches of learning in the community – the pressure to recruit numbers and enrol learners into formal provision, is real.

 

PROMPTS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

  • Are the experiences and methods within these outreach activities, typical of your work and the work of your agency or organisation?
  • Do you recognise the experiences and methods as typical of other workers or agencies you know of?
  • Do you need to develop your own outreach practice?