"The Toolkit" - Practice, Progess and Value
Contents Page | Foreword by the Secretary of State | Introduction and Summary | What is a Learning City? | The Learning City | Taking the First Steps | The Structure of this Guide | The Three Strands of Development | Strand One: Partnership | Strand Two: Participation | Strand Three: Performance | Useful Publications

The Learning City

  • The Learning City
  • The Purposes of the Learning City
  • The Tasks of the Learning City
  • The Conditions of the Learning City

    A Learning City is one which strives to learn how to renew itself in a period of extraordinary global change. The rapid spread of new technologies presents considerable opportunities for countries and regions to benefit from the transfer of new knowledge and ideas across national boundaries. At the same time global shifts in capital flows and production are creating uncertainties and risk in managing national and local economies.

    In periods of such transition, learning becomes central to our future well-being. Only if learning is central can communities harness and develop their traditions and capacities to the challenge of regeneration in the learning age. The central value of learning for communities is that it secures understanding of the purposes, tasks and conditions for social and economic regeneration.

      "A true learning (community) is one which develops by learning from its experiences and those of others. It is a place which understands itself and reflects upon that understanding .... Thus the key characteristic of the learning (community) is the ability to develop successfully in a rapidly changing socio-economic environment. Where (other cities) flounder by trying to repeat past success for too long, the learning (community) is creative in its understanding of its own situation and wider relationships developing new solutions to new problems."

      (Charles Landry and François Matarasso: Comedia, 1998)

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    Cities Facing the Future

    Cities show a variety of ways in which communities are using learning to regenerate themselves or to face the future. In Pittsburgh, USA the collapse of the steel industry has led to massive retraining programmes. In Kakegawa, Japan the involvement of citizens in the revitalisation of their city resulted in a new fast train which enabled the attraction of inward investment. In Britain, the towns and cities which are attracted to the ideas of the Learning City are involved in numerous projects to increase learning and to link regeneration to skills development:

    • in Liverpool, technology is used to link schools and community learners

    • in Southampton, targets are being set for IT training for the whole population

    • in Swansea, an IT network is being developed using European Funding

    • Sheffield is developing a local network of learning centres, "Citinet", linking homes, schools, businesses and community centres: "the world at your fingertips"

    • in Hull, a city wide Single Regeneration Budget bid will focus on education and training across the community. This follows on the inclusion of learning as a key element in the City's economic development strategy

    • in Glasgow, the Glasgow Learning Alliance is promoting learning and taking part in projects to re-engage disaffected young people and a project to introduce employee development programmes in small businesses

    • in Thetford, partnership has led to the attraction of significant Single Regeneration Budget funding for the "On the Learning Curve" initiative. This has enabled an education worker to involve adults on the most disadvantaged estate in learning. Inward investment has provided the motivating prospect of jobs.

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