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There is a crucial role for the voluntary sector in meeting the objectives in the Adult Basic Skills Plan. A strong community and voluntary sector, in touch at a grass roots level with the most disadvantaged and excluded groups, is essential if the basic skills strategy is to become a reality.
The voluntary and community sector is recognised as having a number of differing roles in relation to learning, skills and regeneration.
This recognises the diversity of this sector, the potential for a substantially increased role for a wider range of organisations and that different organisations will need different approaches.
The increased role for the voluntary sector supports the aspiration for the eventual virtual elimination of functional illiteracy and innumeracy in Birmingham, via 3 key objectives. These are:
1. Developing the organisational capacity of voluntary sector organisations as employers, as organisations and as networks, by:
- Ensuring that basic skills is part of a wider process of building the skills of managers, employees and key volunteers based upon robust needs analyses
- Ensuring that opportunities to raise participants’ own levels of relevant basic skills are aligned with specific skills training re voluntary sector processes
2. Developing key voluntary and community sector organisations as deliverers of basic skills, by:
- Offering awareness/assessment training
- Supporting organisations to match established quality levels
- Training of tutors/trainers re effective teaching and learning
- Supporting the development of whole-organisation basic skills plans
- Ensuring effective links to broader developments re basic skills
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3. Developing the basic skills of members of the community to enable them to contribute more effectively, by:
- Increasing the volume of direct basic skills provision that is linked to citizenship; community involvement in regeneration; advocacy etc.
To support this approach voluntary sector organisations, in Birmingham, are able to draw upon a menu which offers the opportunity to ensure that:
- Key staff are trained in basic skills awareness
- Key intermediaries in organisations are able to offer appropriate in-house support for basic skills, as part of a wider ‘championing learning’ role
- Organisations have access to adequate basic skills resources
- Organisations achieve recognised quality standards
- Basic skills is increasingly built into generic programmes
- Any basic skills training, linked to the national framework, is effectively delivered
- Organisations are able to draw on paraprofessional support
- Organisational mentoring is available through links with quality providers
- Partnerships exist with mainstream providers to support bridging activities; access to further training; and enhancement of basic skills of key staff in organisations
- Voluntary organisations are able to draw upon a Training Needs Analysis and structured support to improve the basic skills of key staff
- Organisations are kept involved in, or in touch with, key developments re adult basic skills; and that each organisation has its own basic skills action plan.
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