The route to a learning city needs to proceed along three distinct strands of development. These three strands relate to different but interrelated aspects of the learning city:

1. PARTNERSHIP - learning to build connections between sectors
   This means setting up, developing and sustaining partnerships. This strand is relevant to those who are at the beginning of an initiative or where partnerships need to review their progress.

2. PARTICIPATION - learning to involve the public in the policy process
   This means involving the wider community in learning and in contributing towards changes in their community. This strand is relevant for those working in initiatives which want to involve traditional non-participants in planning relevant education and training and those who want to develop means for communities to have a more active role and greater influence in regeneration and development.

3. PERFORMANCE - learning to evaluate progress
   This means how communities measure progress against their own targets, against the progress others are making and looks at how an assessment of the value added by working for the creation of a learning city might be assessed. This strand is relevant to all those working in current initiatives, who wish to measure progress and justify the resources spent in partnership working. It is also for those who want to set up an evaluation framework early on in an initiative

• clarifying purposes, priorities and plans
• introducing the appropriate organisational processes
• identifying and developing people
• monitoring and evaluating performance
• using evaluation results to guide future actions.