Sheffield

Introduction

This account of Sheffield the Learning City initiative covers the six years from its formation in 1992 to mid 1998. It outlines:

• the main local achievements
• projects currently being developed
• the local contribution to the development of the Learning City Network

Finally, it attempts an assessment of the impact of the initiative in terms of three categories which form the basis of the Learning City Network's Value Added Project:

• partnership
• participation
• performance

Background

Following the publication of his report, Learning Cities (CERI/OECD,1992), Donald Hirsch was invited to open a series of seminars which ran during the winter/spring of 1992-93. The initiative to arrange the seminars came from an informal grouping of mainly adult educationalists drawn from the local authority, the universities, Sheffield College, the Northern College and the WEA. The series promoted a lively debate about the relevance of the Learning City concept to:

• economic development
• community development
• cultural and creative industries
• opening up access to education and training.

The outcome was a number of new initiatives (see below) plus a commitment to create a Learning City initiative in Sheffield. This was formally launched at a public meeting at the college in the following year following a period of preparation.

Structure

The constitution drawn up for the Learning City began with a number of objectives and then set out a structure which comprised affiliates - both individuals and organisations - electing an executive. The majority of the executive seats were reserved for the founder agencies: the City Council, College, TEC, WEA, Universities and Northern College. More than 20 local organisations have affiliated to the Learning City.

Partnerships

The Learning City has helped to establish a strong network of lifelong learning agencies in the city. It has used these to develop a number of off-shoot initiatives and to gain funding for them. It has also been able to influence and shape the climate of thinking about learning and regeneration in the city. For example, the advertisement for a new director of education in late 1996 referred to the Learning City as does the City Achievement Strategy, which sets out a route to raising achievement in the city's schools.

But its adult education base has also been a weakness. There has been no substantial and consistent engagement with employers and the private sector even though qualification and participation levels amongst the majority of the local workforce who work in smaller enterprises is worrying low. Related to this weakness, is the failure to engage with the TEC and the chief executives of the major education and training agencies in Sheffield. At the same time as the Learning City began to develop in 1992-93, the Strategic Education Forum (SEF) was set up by the TEC, the local authority and the Universities to promote and monitor the National Education and Training Targets. With it came funding and recognition by the government. The Forum was given the task by Sheffield's senior partnership, the City Liaison Group, of leading the education and training elements of the city's regeneration strategy.

The result, probably uniquely, is that Sheffield has had two parallel structures where other cities have developed one integrated body. This has weakened both, limiting their effective contribution. It has also limited the Learning City's access to stable funding, forcing it to depend on specific grants from local agencies where as the Strategic Education Forum has been able to count on a properly funded secretariat. In practice, there has been a great deal of overlap between the two bodies through common membership which has stimulated the search for a more unified approach. For the past year, a discussion has been under way aimed at integrating the two and re-defining a common set of objectives.

Contribution to Learning City Network

Since the beginning, the Network has been firmly supported by the Sheffield initiative which is one of the founding affiliates. Sheffield members have provided a Chair of the Network (Martin Yamit, 1997-98) and the convenor of the Conference organising committee (Keith Hayman) The Network is supported because of its practical value to local activity - this is certainly the case with the Value Added Project - and because it is seen as legitimising the Learning City concept on the national stage which is helpful locally. But the chief value of the Network is that it provides ready access to best practice in other cities and to cutting edge debate about the value of learning for regeneration.

LOCAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Parents as Partners

A discussion in a Learning City seminar has led to collaboration between the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Education Department on a project to support parents' involvement in their children's early years leaming. The REAL project, led by Dr Peter Hannon, has won a 90,000 pounds research grant to investigate parental support for early years literacy. Dr Hannon has been appointed the Strategic Education Forum's literacy priority ‘Champion’

A later spin-off has been the creation of the Parents as Partners project by the Education Department, Sheffield College and Sheffield Hallam University to promote parental involvement in their children's learning through primary and secondary schools.

Multilingual City

The third annual conference of the Multilingual City signals the establishment of an initiative which arose from discussions during the first series of Learning City seminars. Ahmed Gurnah has presented the project at the Council of Europe and at an international conference in Turin. The Multilingual City aims to promote language learning throughout the school system and beyond. It has a twin focus on community and European languages. Sources of support include the European Commission and the Italian government which supports a programme of language acquisition in Sheffield nursery and primary schools.

European Years of Lifelong Learning

The Learning City took the initiative to create local coordinating groups for the European Year of Lifelong Learning. Highlights of the Year of Lifelong Learning include:

• a city centre poster campaign in January 1996 to promote the benefits of lifelong learning followed by a similar campaign inside Mainline buses in October
• a national conference on lifelong learning addressed by Nick Stuart, Director- General for Employment and Lifelong Learning at DFEE, Jimmy Jamar (by video), Head of the European Commission's office for the year, Sir John Banham, ex-Director General of the CBI
• a European week of learning and culture, with events at a wide range of local venues and involving schools including several primary schools

Cicero

Cicero, a project to train unemployed people as European community animateurs, was piloted with funding from the European Year of Lifelong Learning. Now funded by the European Commission and the DFEE, Cicero is training 50 unemployed men and women with significant numbers from ethnic minority communities. Most participants are from Yorkshire and the Humber but they are also drawn from throughout the country. One group includes women from both communities in Belfast.

A highlight of the programme is a study visit to Brussels to gain first hand understanding of the workings of the European Union. When qualified, Cicero graduates will be able to pass on their understanding of the Union's policy making and grant giving processes to community-based groups in disadvantaged areas. Arrangements are in hand to develop Cicero as a transnational initiative.

SRB Bid

The Learning City's contribution to the single Regeneration Budget's round 4 bid in Sheffield reflects its long-standing commitment to community-based learning. Two well-attended local seminars on capacity building organised by the Learning City helped to establish as a key element of the bid local learning centres as a basis for capacity building for community economic development.

Citinet

The impact of the Learning City's thinking also lies behind Citinet, a plan to create a city-wide network of information and learning centres, which is backed by a wide range of local organisations led by the City Council, the College and the TEC. Citinet has quickly won backing from the government through its SHIs Challenge Fund.

Campaign for Learning

The Learning City leads the initiative to create a 6ty-wide Campaign for Learning building on the experience of the European Year. As well as gaining the support of a wide range of local organisations, the campaign has the endorsement of the national Campaign for Learning. The campaign will link to a number of key government initiatives including the University for Industry and Individual Learning Accounts. It is forming a partnership with a community-based Organisation, North East Sheffield Trust, to mount a campaign to widen participation in the Parson Cross area of the city where achievement levels are low.

Value Added Project (VAP) Pilot

Sheffield, the Learning City, has keenly supported the development of the Value Added framework commissioned by the Network on behalf of DFEE. It has put itself forward to pilot the framework which has particular relevance to the Campaign for Learning. More generally, the framework offers the Sheffield lifelong learning partnership as a whole a practical approach to evaluation which complements the National Targets and other measures in local use.

EVALUATION

Partnership

Despite the negative impact of the existence of two learning partnerships in Sheffield, together the Learning City and the Strategic Education Forum provide a broad coverage of local interests. It is becoming relatively easy to assemble specific partnerships to mount new proposals and projects as Citinet has demonstrated. A re-launched body combining both approaches will have great strengths, especially if it can remedy the gaps in their representation i.e. community-based organisations, employers, ethnic minority communities and trade unions.

Participation

The election of a new government on 1st May 1997 has changed the tone of local debate and given a new priority to public participation and capacity building as an integral part of the regeneration process. Formal links between community- based organisations and lifelong learning have been slow to develop but will be critical to the success of area regeneration strategies.

Performance

Evaluation and assessment processes are common in some settings. Performance data are central to the management of TEC and SRB projects but less common in community-based learning. To demonstrate the value added by the Learning City's Campaign for Learning locally a unique evaluation process is being designed which places the measuring devices in the hands of local people to promote self-review and target setting.

CONCLUSION

Sheffield the Learning City has established the contribution of lifelong learning to urban regeneration as a vital part of local thinking. It has generated a number of spin-offs which have established themselves as independent entities. But its development to date has been hampered by the existence of a parallel body, the Strategic Education Forum. There is, however, a process of convergence of the two bodies which is likely to result eventually in integration. Increasingly, they share a common concern for widening participation and for ensuring that economic regeneration is underpinned by a programme of capacity building.