Adult learning newsletter spring 2015 web

Summer 2011 Issue 10 SPRING 2015

This edition • Investing in Volunteers • ESOL Work Club • ASDAN Employability Award

Triple Joy for Adult Learning Stirling Council’s Adult Learning Team has successfully achieved

• Partnerships • Bi-lingual Story Books

the Investing in Volunteers standard for the third time. The team was the first local authority team in Scotland to achieve the

standard in 2009, and it has now set a new record by meeting the criteria three times in a row.

Investing in Volunteers (administered in Scotland by Volunteer

Scotland) is the UK quality standard for good practice in volunteer

management and organisations renew every three years to ensure they continue to meet the requirements.

The report highlighted positive aspects of the experience provided

by Stirling’s Adult Learning Team. This included feedback such as:

• • • •

Volunteering providing opportunities for individuals to raise their skills and confidence levels.

The impact of volunteers is phenomenal.

Staff who are so welcoming and positive.

Feedback from volunteers, such as “The way learners and staff treat me – I feel valued.”

Over 50 volunteers currently work with the team, supporting the

delivery of a variety of learning opportunities for adults in the Stirling Council area. Classes include literacy, numeracy, employability, computing, crafts and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other

Languages). In addition, eight volunteers are currently undertaking their initial training to enable them to support literacy learners.

The team are always looking for new volunteers to join them. You don’t have to have any formal qualifications, as training and on-

going support are part of the package on offer. Please contact us for further information.

Welcome to the new edition of Adult Learning in Stirling with the latest news about the learning success of local people across Stirling.

It’s great to see the hard work and effort put in by

learners being rewarded through successes such as gaining employment or certification through accredited learning programmes. Successful

partnership work is also making a difference by

providing access to a wider range of opportunities for local people. We’re celebrating our own

success this time too, having become the first

local authority team in Scotland to achieve a third successive Investing in Volunteers standards award. Congratulations to all staff, volunteers and

learners on that success.

We hope you enjoy this latest edition!

ESOL Developments ve ESOL Work Club helps dzri work success for Tomas Congratulations to Tomasz on

achieving his goal of getting work as a HGV driver in Scotland. Tomasz, originally from Poland, has been

coming to the Adult Learning ESOL Work Club for a few months to get

support with job seeking and English skills.

Tomasz is an experienced HGV driver from Poland. He approached a local Stirling employer about an HGV driver’s job, but to get the

job Tomasz had to meet certain national conditions. Whilst Tomasz had acquired rights to drive, these had expired.Tomasz had to do

the 35 hours Periodic Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (Driver CPC) training and get the Driver Qualification Card (DQC)

before being able to apply for driving jobs. Due to his circumstances, Tomasz also needed to convert his Polish driving licence to a UK licence, arrange a medical and apply for a tachograph card.

The ESOL Work Club helped Tomasz make sense of the different requirements, transfer his licence and apply for his new cards.

Fun with Bi-lingual Story Books Adult Learning recently ran a bi-lingual story book event for families in partnership with

Libraries Services. The event, which was held in Central Library, was a great opportunity for parents to read with their children in English

and their first language. It was well attended by families from a wide range of nationalities who

were able to enjoy sharing the great stock of bi-

lingual and wordless storybooks provided by the library. The session also included making some

very artistic name badges and some fun games

for everyone, from babies up to adults to join in.

They liaised with Job Centre Plus to help Tomasz communicate

that he had genuine prospects of employment and as a result he maintained his benefits until he started work. The ESOL Work

Club also helped Tomasz source and book a Driver CPC training

provider that was not only better value, but also allowed him to do

the training over five consecutive days rather than over five months.

This meant Tomasz was able to meet with his new employer and start working the day after completing his Driver CPC training.

The vast majority of job seekers who have regularly attended the ESOL Work Club are now in

employment. The ESOL Job Club

meets on Friday afternoons and is

open to all jobseekers with English as a Second or Other Language.

With the support from the ESOL Work Club, Tomasz was able to start working the day after completing his Driver CPC training.

Adults and children having fun and learning together

s ip h s r e n t r a P g in n r a e L Adult IT Help and Learning Drop In: An Adult Learning Raploch Community Partnership Project

The Adult Learning Team and Raploch Community Partnership have been providing some innovative learning opportunities in Raploch.

The project runs twice a week at Raploch Campus and covers learning IT for employability (e.g. searching for jobs online, creating a CV, etc.) and offers people help with wider IT skills development. Participants can also find out about other learning opportunities such as basic skills, community classes, life skills and college courses.

The project has been a big success, with up to 12 people attending each session. Many have never used a computer before, but with encouragement and some friendly assistance even the most terrified soon find their way around the system.

People needing more specialised help, for example improving their CV or practising interview skills, have been able to access additional classes provided by RCP, and some people who, having had a taste of learning, have moved on to more structured courses in IT and courses in basic skills with the Adult Learning Team.

The feedback from the participants is good. Learners enjoy the sessions and can see the progress they are making and the confidence they have gained. Several of the job seekers have gone on to get jobs.

Adult Learni ng ha of Wo s a ra rk Clu nge b s availab jobsee kers n le for eeding IT an help w d emp ith loyabil Conta ity sk ct us ills. for mo re inf ormat ion.

Karen McLeish ACE Cornton Learner of the Year ACE Cornton is a community based organisation which delivers adult learning opportunities in Cornton and other priority areas across Stirling.

The organisation is managed by a board of directors, supported by a service contract with Stirling Council and works in partnership with the Adult Learning Team.

The project’s current Learner of the Year is Karen McLeish, who came to ACE to improve her computing skills as she was thinking of returning to work.

Karen started out on a beginners’ computing course but soon found she had developed skills to help others around her. She was then asked to become a computing volunteer “buddy” to help in other classes.

Karen took on this challenge and supported learners in a range of classes.

Learning has certainly benefited Karen.

She now has a new job, but still manages to volunteer helping local people develop their skills. She has also become a board member at ACE, attending meetings and contributing her experience as an adult learner for the benefit of others.

s t n e m e v ie h c A s ’ r e Highlighting Learn Thomas’ great accomplishment

ASDAN Employability Qualification Celebration Adult learners, members of staff and Employability partners recently celebrated achievement in the ASDAN Employability Award. Nicola

Mackenzie, Gordon Bryce, Jacqueline Murray and David Hutton were

the first learners at the Adult Learning Team to achieve the award and

all worked hard to complete a range of modules in Career Exploration, Opportunities for Learning and Work, Overcoming Barriers to Work, Introduction to Customer Care, Rights and Responsibilities at Work

and Tackling Number Problems. During the course, learners had the

opportunity to find out about different careers and how to access the

type of work which most interested them. They were also required to

apply their learning to real life work situations through their placements with Stirling Council’s Employability Service and voluntary work

experience. The learners who participated in the course felt that it had helped them to develop their employability skills as well as developing

Congratulations to Thomas for completing work on his SQA Communication Speaking Unit at level 3. Thomas has recently been attending the Verbal Skills class on Wednesdays at the Cowane Centre.

Work on the unit involved planning, preparing and presenting a talk on his holiday in Bulgaria, using PowerPoint.

Well done Thomas, thanks for a very informative and entertaining presentation.

confidence to apply for work in their areas of interest.

The Adult Learning Team provide a range of classes including: • Reading, writing, spelling and numbers • English for speakers of other languages • ICT skills • Family learning • Personal development and confidence building • Languages • Skills for work • Volunteering and more

For further information, call 01786 237517 or email adultlearning@stirling.gov.uk

http:// www.stirling.gov.uk/adultlearning facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adult-

Learning-Team-Stirling-Council/147816432027472