Southampton

Objectives

To develop a system for assessing the value of Learning Shops. The original project bid included, developing a shared understanding of the objectives of Learning Shops, identifying performance indicators and targets, developing ways of collecting and monitoring data and consideration of the ways that Shops might extend their role.

For the purposes of the Pathfinder project, evaluation has been based on Strand 3 of the Guide, focusing on performance. The Guide is set at a strategic level and, because the project itself was involved with the development of the partnerships and activity that were field based, it was not found to be very user friendly. The work done with the shop in Southampton was drawn from the Guide, but also the current Local Authority good practice.

Outcomes

Four Learning Shops have been established to date; three in library facilities and one in a community shop. A particular Shop that was a focus of the project is located in a library and most of the work done in it related to school age children. Few adults have been engaged and none in the 40 - 55 age range. The Shops are not guidance shops. They are effectively IT learning centres with very limited learner support. Library staff provide this and it is felt that the kind of support is not adequate if those attending are not competent in their use of IT.

The issues that emerged from the project include, the problem mentioned above in relation to learner support, but also issues in relation to access in terms of opening hours. Libraries based in the community tend to have quite restricted opening hours which do not fit in well with likely patterns of use of an IT centre. It has been difficult to market and raise awareness of the Shops, particularly among the target client group and for some of these prospective learners, the library environment would not be a comfortable one.

The Partnership involved in the development has been a successful one, but there is a need to engage partnerships fully at both strategic and operational level. Resources are inevitably an issue impacting on all the other issues mentioned above.

The Guide was not considered user friendly, which would be an issue if used by community groups. There was a request to extend frameworks, which would help initiatives follow a structured process. However, using the Guide enabled the initiative to set about the work in a constructive way, creating an aims and objectives matrix with performance indicators.