Partnerships collaborate to upskill the CLD
30 July 2010
Lifelong Learning UK is managing the CLD (Community Learning and Development) Upskilling Programme on behalf of Scottish Government. This has involved providing grants to 32 CLD Partnerships.
The North Alliance brings together seven of the CLD Partnerships in the North of Scotland. Each of the seven members of the Alliance pooled 60 per cent of their Upskilling Programme grant to enable the creation of a Virtual Learning Environment. The Alliance are now working with a private sector company to plan and design this resource. CLD Partnerships such as Aberdeenshire have used their remaining 40 per cent of the grant to fund new learning opportunities. Aberdeenshire made the HNC Introduction to Community Work qualification available to unqualified staff in the local authority, the third sector and also to local activists/volunteers.
Impact
Kevin McDermott from Aberdeenshire Council explained some of the benefits of the upskilling activities that have taken place in Aberdeenshire and across the North of Scotland:
"The project has. allowed us to build links across the partner organisations. It has been very positive and has built the capacity of the North Alliance itself."
We asked Kevin whether he has any recommendations or advice for other CLD organisations that are working to upskill their staff and volunteers? He said:
"The biggest lesson we have had is the widening of the steering group to have equal representation of third sector partners. The decision to pool resources to maximise impact and prevent duplication has been a positive development and one which will hopefully make best use of the resources available across the seven local authority areas."
Phase 2 of the Upskilling Programme will begin soon. This will involve further grants to the partnerships, more national training programmes and more support from Development Officers.
For more information please contact moirastewart@lluk.org.
