Background and Methodology | Overview | Birmingham | Bradford | Bristol | Gateshead | Greenwich | Hackney | Leicester | Liverpool | Manchester | Norwich | Sheffield | Slough K: The Norwich Project Project context K1 Norwich has recently suffered a series of job losses due to a number of firms leaving, or reducing the size of their workforce in the area. The local economic situation is currently improving; for example, jobs are now available in the construction industry, due to developments such as Riverside, the Castle Mall cinema, a new hospital at Colney and Broadland Business Park. However, there are not enough applicants with the right skills; there is also has a low wage problem, with many rural areas. Transport links between Norwich and the rest of the country are poor, which can act as a deterrent for major investment. K2 Three wards in the city were chosen as the focus of the project. These wards represent the most deprived areas in the city that have not already received substantial external funding. The area has high numbers of lone parent families (up to 53% of the population in some cases according to 1991 census figures), high levels of unemployment for the region and a large percentage of young people leaving school at sixteen. The population is mainly white, although there are some Bangladeshi families in the area who are becoming increasingly isolated. Project objectives K3 The aims of the project were as follows:- to increase knowledge of a variety of learning opportunities for individuals within the geographical area of the target wards; to put awareness of lifelong learning opportunities on the agenda of different community organisations; to increase confidence in individual's own abilities and awareness of "self as a learner"; to take information about learning into communities; to increase involvement in learning; to involve employers in providing opportunities for their employees to recognise their skills. There are four strands of project work designed to meet these objectives, which are outlined in the section 'progress against objectives'. Management arrangements K4 The contract for the project was held by Norfolk and Waveney TEC with the other key partners as follows:- Norwich City Council Norfolk Careers Services (NCS) Norfolk County Council Adult Education Service Women's Education, Employment and Training Unit (WEETU). K5 There is a history of collaborative working in Norwich through such initiatives as 'Norwich a Learning City' and all partners have experience of working with each other before. As might be expected, therefore, things have run relatively smoothly; all partners have been satisfied with the way the project has developed. Progress against objectives K6 The project consisted of four strands as follows:- capacity building for key workers; parents at playgroups; family workshops; employee development of transferable skills. Progress on each of these four strands will be discussed separately below. Strand 1: Capacity building for key workers K7 This strand involved training key workers with existing links at community level, including groups such as the CAB, other voluntary organisations and those in the wider community, as identified by Norfolk Adult Education Service. These workers already have contact with people in disadvantaged areas and the course aimed to provide them with the skills and information necessary to direct their existing clients towards the relevant services in the fields of guidance and education. The course ran on a part-time basis, delivered by Norfolk County Council Adult Education Service, and ran for three hours a week over a six-week period. A resource pack was provided to students on completion of the course. K8 Norfolk County Council Adult Education Service was responsible for marketing the courses and invitation letters were sent out to community organisations in the three target wards. The Norwich Guidance Network was able to suggest organisations to involve in the mailing. Both courses ran successfully: the first met its quota of ten students, the second was oversubscribed. Overall, eleven people received accreditation. K9 In addition to the provision of a resource pack, NCS was responsible for holding four feedback and information sessions, held quarterly, for students from both courses. The feedback sessions served to update the trainees' information, create a group identity and maintain motivation. These have proved extremely popular and have helped people to network with others in similar situations. Each session had two guest speakers and attendance at the sessions gradually grew; by the last session, there were ten regular attendees. K10 Building on the success of these courses, word has spread across the county. A number of further courses are planned; Norfolk County Council Adult Education Service plan to run the same course in different areas, and also to run a course specifically designed for individuals working with 16-25 year old deaf people. Norfolk and Waveney TEC has secured funding for the delivery of a further course under ESF Objective 4 to managers. It is difficult, however, to measure the impact within the community of this kind of training for community workers, as establishing causality with subsequent client outcomes can only be tentative, at best. This may cause problems in securing target-led funding in the future. Strand 2: Parents at playgroups K11 This strand of the project aimed to take advice, information and guidance into a playgroup setting, to encourage parents to take advantage of learning opportunities. WEETU took on the management of this strand and aimed to deliver two sessions to playgroups in each of the three areas. Project workers had difficulty in identifying willing playgroups, however, as there were less playgroups than anticipated, following introduction of the Nursery Voucher Scheme. Communication with each playgroup also took longer than expected as all decisions had to be made through the committee, requiring extra time. K12 After a slow start, two sessions were delivered successfully to six playgroups. Three were in Mancroft and three in Henderson ward; additional sessions were planned in Catton Grove, but no-one attended. Between four and six people attended each session in the remaining two wards, although the penultimate session attracted ten, all of whom were women. The sessions were quite intensive; advisers attempted to cover thirty hours of training in just four hours, with a small homework task set after the first session which led into the second session. K13 The sessions covered a variety of topics, including needs assessment, skills identification, CV writing and applications. In the smaller groups, there were more opportunities to give individual guidance. Overall, most of the parents had their first child at playgroup and advisers felt it was difficult for them to see beyond this. Everyone left the session with an action plan (either verbal or written). WEETU is currently looking at ways of taking specific workshops into playgroups based on this successful model. Strand 3: Family workshops K14 The Family Literacy Programme in Norwich is well developed. Family workshops have proved to be a highly effective way of encouraging people back into the learning process. Workshops consist of an afternoon or morning of free activities in which parents and children can participate together. At the end of the session, an adult basic skills tutor talks to the adults about different learning opportunities, with the aim of encouraging adults to sign up for a ten week learning course which fulfils their individual learning needs. For this project, a new element was added, that of the family learning plan. Before the end of the workshop, adults were encouraged to complete an action plan for themselves and their children, which details the future steps necessary for them to achieve their learning goals. The workshops were held in local primary schools. K15 Four schools were targeted for the work, each displaying marked under-achievement and some having held workshops before. Invitations were sent out to parents via their children and were designed to resemble a party invitation, encouraging whole family involvement. Nine workshops were run in total, with 22-25 family members involved in each (one workshop, however, had no less than 45 families!). K16 Activities on offer included a number of craft activities like badge making (which helped staff in addressing individuals by name!), all of which used relatively cheap materials in an attempt to encourage parents to try the activities out at home. Another very popular activity was the provision of IT equipment. The computers were used to produce items for them to take home, eg. bedroom name labels. Also available were a number of CD ROM packages, including Incarta. This was aimed to demonstrate the range of uses for IT. A qualified IT trainer was available to help parents without computer skills. K17 The project has helped to build up strong relationships with schools. This is important as the workshops rely on the commitment of school staff in publicising the event. Strand 4: Employee development of transferable skills K18 This strand targets people in low-paid jobs whose employers cannot fund training. Their employers may still be seeking skilled employees, however, and be interested in finding out what skills existing employees may have. Experienced advisers are able, through interviewing employees, to establish the transferable skills that they possess and this information is produced in a report. The interviewers look not only at skills developed through paid employment, but also examine relevant out of work activities. WEETU have previous experience of providing these interviews but only with employers/individuals who could afford to pay for the service; the provision of this funding has allowed the service to be offered without charge. K19 The first task involved the identification of suitable businesses, typically, but not exclusively, SMEs. Workers experienced initial difficulties in drawing boundaries around the three wards, as a number of conflicting maps existed. Once boundaries were established, workers found the best method of identifying businesses was to go out around the area on foot, taking down company details from the exterior of the premises and talking to people with local knowledge. K20 Contact was made with suitable businesses by an initial letter and follow-up phone call. Another phone call was made to businesses which showed an interest. The take-up was extremely low, especially amongst small employers, (due to a lack of time and resources: employees couldn't be spared for even an hour!). Overall, only two employers were prepared to work with WEETU, both in Mancroft ward (a city centre location). Twenty-three people from these firms were interviewed, with positive results; one woman seen has since received both a promotion and pay rise following participation in the exercise. K21 Due to the lack of interest from businesses, WEETU used the Norwich Guidance Network to identify individuals who were interested. In this way, the quota of fifty interviews was met. Some were in low paid employment and were able to access this interview without using their employer as their route into transferable skills Principal learning points K22 Learning points from the four strands of the project include the following:- when preparing resource materials for key workers, it is important that the tone is correct from the outset and that it is clear that adults are the target audience. It may take more than one attempt to get this right, but the production of a high quality, transferable, resource is worth the effort; any plans to work with playgroups should allow plenty of time, as decisions have to go through their committees and personal contact is vitally important; when working on school premises it is important to maintain the commitment of staff in order to secure their help in attracting people to the service. Small courtesies, such as leaving things as you find them, can help sustain positive relationships; there is often a lack of accurate and up to date data on employers. Going out on foot around the local area and talking to people can be the best way of getting information.