Session 2 – 11th April – 14.30-15.20

Title of Presentation: Untapping Potential in County Durham

Presenters: Charmian Walter & Kath Smith

Organisation: County Durham Learning/Bishop Auckland College

Summary:

A discussion paper based on the issues emerging from the following material:

• The direct experience of County Durham Learning as an organisation that has developed the principles of non-accredited learning and widening participation from the perspective of the learner, through extensive partnership working, good practice guidelines and a cross-discipline Quality Kitemark. 
• Completed research, ‘Growing the Potential of County Durham Learning (2004) into the nature of non-accredited learning in County Durham.

New research being undertaken in 2005 into progression has been influenced by a partnership that has developed locally between County Durham Learning and Aim Higher.  There is a growing realisation that there are skills and talents within the people of the area that could be nurtured in a more sophisticated way, raising aspiration and self-esteem in the process, enabling more people to consider higher education as something for them, rather than their children or grandchildren.

Main issues raised:

• ‘Unqualified’ does not mean ‘unintelligent’ – highlighting the need for sophisticated skills assessment to direct learners into the appropriate level of learning in the most appropriate subject area.  Such an approach requires an understanding of the non-linear progression of fragile learners and an acknowledgement of the untapped potential within prior learning and experience gained in other fields. 
• Mentoring and support as part of the progression process, demanding a support network trained to fit fragile learners into progression routes that are suitable for them.  (Model: County Durham Learning’s Supporting Learners in the Community programme
• Expanding practitioners’ understanding of the status of non-accredited learning and the value it has in forming the basis for progression into further, higher and vocational education.  (Model: County Durham Learning as central resource for information about approaches to non-accredited learning)
• Recording achievement as part of the progression process.  This demands an appropriate method of tracking progress through a variety of learning settings, with a number of providers, in a variety of locations across the county.  Such an approach highlights the challenges to providers to record information in such a way that it becomes an accessible resource both for providers and learners.  (Model: County Durham Learning Certificates and Learning Passports)