The partnership exists to ensure that levels of literacy, numeracy and supporting IT key skills in the area increase to exceed national target levels by working through certain key groups, including:
The partnership sits within the wider strategic planning and operating mechanisms between Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC), Birmingham and Solihull Learning and Skills Council, Birmingham and Solihull Connexions, Birmingham and Solihull Jobcentre Plus and Birmingham City Council. It is more a way of working than a structure in its own right. |
The partnership was established to test out new approaches to lifelong learning at the heart of Birmingham's economic and social regeneration, with the development of higher levels of literacy, language, numeracy and IT at the very core of this. A range of development resources provide the partner organisations with the opportunity to develop core skills issues. The unified nature of the approach stresses the need to jointly create a coherent framework, with common messages, (rather than to aim for patchy, fragmentary activity) if consistent and widescale impact is to be made.
The Core Skills Development approach brings together ideas from networks of planners and practitioners and aims to work within the existing corporate strategies of the major organisations within the city. The aim is to extend what these organisations do rather than set up alternative activity. It aims to bring about increases in the achievement levels – closing the gap to national levels and then going beyond these to meet, or exceed, the best comparator levels in European cities that have features similar to Birmingham. It aims to do this by bringing about long term changes in the way systems work, long term improvements in the quality of services and increased coherence in the developments planned. |
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43 Temple Row
Birmingham B2 5LS
e-mail: office@coreskills.co.uk