The Connecting Learners Project was established in March 2010

with the aim of widening partici-pation in learning in the commu-

nity-voluntary sector.

With a particular focus on the essential skills of literacy, nu-

meracy and IT, we have been able to support 118 organisa-

tions between the areas of Pem-brokeshire and Monmouthshire.

We celebrated our achievements at an event held at the Village

Hotel, Swansea where we met

with colleagues and friends and reflected on the achievements of

employers and learners .

As a Welsh Government funded

project, we were delighted to welcome Jeff Cuthbert, AM—

Deputy Minister for Skills—who emphasised: “Raising the skills

of the Welsh workforce is vital if

we are to prosper as a nation.”

The Deputy Minister added:

“Gaining skills improves opportu-nities for career development,

builds confidence and increases the value of the individual to an

organisation.”

Delegates were enthralled

by learner stories and employer presentations.

We were joined by repre-

sentatives of the trade union movement: UNI-

SON and the Wales TUC who spoke at length

about the benefits of trade union led learning.

Lead partner organisa-tions delivered case study

presentations and these

included contributions

from: Community Lives Consortium, RCT Homes

and Bridge Mentoring Plus

Scheme.

The real stars were the

learners themselves and delegates were inspired

by their stories about

how they had overcome difficulties to access

development opportuni-ties.

Supporting staff em-ployed in social care

played a large part in the Project and we

were pleased to wel-

come the Deputy Minis-ter for Children & Social

Services, Gwenda Tho-mas AM who addressed

the delegates. The Deputy Minister af-

firmed “We need to ensure that people de-

livering frontline care

have the essential skills to carry out their roles

to the best of their abil-ity in line with our am-

bition to increase the status and profile of the

social care workforce in Wales.”

Connecting Learners Celebrates in Style

Hosting Organisation—Sector Leaders in Essential Skills

We were pleased to see our hosting organisation Community Lives Consortium receive the Essential Skills Employer Pledge award at the Celebration of Learning Event. During the

life span of the project, Community Lives has made a huge investment in supporting staff with essential skills needs. Supported by the Welsh Government’s Essential Skills in the

Workplace programme, Community Lives has been able to encourage several staff to

achieve qualifications in literacy, numeracy and IT. By building internal capacity, staff are also able to access support on a one-to-one basis from qualified staff and Union Learning

Representatives.

Gwenda Thomas AM

My Learning Experience 2

Performing Better Together 2

Essential Skills Awareness 2

Spotlight on: Union Learning Reps 3

Helping Housing Associations 3

Partnership Working—Health & Social Care 3

A Special Thanks... 4

Inside this issue:

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March 2013

The aim of the workshop was to enhance understanding of the ap-

praisal process and to encourage participants to take ownership of

their personal development by iden-

tifying their learning needs and to help them align their goals to the

organisation. 51 learners attended the workshops and 96% of the at-

tendees rated the session “Good” or “Excellent”. Nicola Marvelley, Staff

Development Manager explained

that as a result of the workshop performance reviews have become

more embedded in the organisation.

The workshop has since been of-

fered to other organisations as an

example of good practice.

One of the Project’s strengths was responding to employers’ and learn-

ers’ needs and reacting by offering suite of courses that were relevant

in content and level of study.

We were approached by RCT Homes in Pontypridd to help organise a

course aimed at staff involved in the appraisal process. We agreed to

commission Peter Green of PJG Con-sultants, who developed the Per-

forming Better Together workshop.

We are committed to improving our service and want to provide the best

opportunities possible for our learners and partner employers. With this in

mind, we populated an online survey to

review the work of the project and help shape future activity.

Our learners said: We listened to feedback and are pleased to add the following work-

shops to our portfolio:

Introduction to Autism

Understanding Dementia

Mindfulness

Mental Health Awareness

Government strat-egy by introducing a

number of initiatives which included our

popular Essential

Skills & Dyslexia Awareness work-

shop. The work-shop was de-

livered across 43 locations

with represen-tatives from 96

organisations

attending.

The Welsh Government has invested £…. As part of their commitment to

improve the essential skills of liter-acy, numeracy and IT.

Figures revealed that 25% of adults

experience difficulty with reading and literacy and a massive 53%

admitting they struggle with num-bers.

The Connecting Learners project has actively supported the Welsh

We were also pleased to provide active support for 6 organisations to

access funding through the Essential Skills in the Workplace (ESiW)

programme.

The project was also able to engage with learners on this sensitive sub-

ject through a range of informal activities—the most popular being

the Six Book Reading Challenge. An impressive 91 learners completed

the challenge and several

organisations benefited from the

purchase and donation of Quick Reads. materials.

Page 2

Connecting Learners launches flagship programme:

Performing Better Together

The Connecting Learners Experience

Raising Awareness around Essential Skills

Check out RCT Homes presentation on

our website:

www.connectinglearners.wordpress.com

“Thanks to you both for the effort you put into the Challenge and reaching learners that are so hard to reach.” David Kendall—The Reading Agency

33% rated their experience Excellent with 67% saying it

was Very Good

67% rated communication be-tween Connecting Learners and their organisation as

Excellent

The Essential Skills & Dys-lexia Awareness workshop helped me understand the issues people are dealing

with and how to help over-come them.

The Basic IT course:

“Definitely more confident ... I am now a “black-belt” on

my iPhone!”

We also investigated Sector cover-age and are delighted to welcome

new partners on board from Powys & Ceredigion.

As well as working with community-

voluntary sector organisations we look forward to including private

and non-registered care/nursing homes.

M AR CH 201 3

Housing Association.

Working with trade

union col leagues UNITE and UCATT,

we were proud to play

our part in establish-ing a Learning Centre

at Merthyr Valley Homes. The Johnny Owen Centre now houses a

suite of laptop computers and learn-ing resources including a lending

library for staff. The facility was

officially opened by Jeff Cuthbert AM, Deputy

Minister for Skills in October 2012.

The partnership has

also produced new Union Learning Repre-

sentatives and workplace learning committees whose sustain the work

of Connecting Learners beyond it’s life span.

Many housing associations across Wales now find themselves operat-

ing independently following the transfer of local authority housing

stock.

We had great pleasure in working with a number of Housing Associa-

tions including RCT Homes, NPT Homes, Monmouthshire Housing

Association, Tai Calon Community Housing, Merthyr Valley Homes,

Cadwyn Housing and United Welsh

The success of project like Connect-ing Learners depends largely on a

lively and active network of Union Learning Reps (ULRs).

ULRs are enthusiasts and advocates

for lifelong learning. Through their own love of learning, they encour-

age others to take advantage of the wealth of development opportunities

offered by the employer, trade un-ion and the wider community.

A fairly new role within the trade union movement, ULRs are entitled

to paid time off to attend training

and perform their role (Employment Act 2002)

The Connecting Learners project identified and supported 12 ULRs

who work for: Community Lives Consortium, NPT Homes, United

Welsh Housing Association, Perthyn and Foothold Regeneration. There

are also new reps in RCT Homes and Tai Calon Community Housing

who will soon to be complete their training.

We have seen exciting new initia-

tives introduced by ULRs at Commu-nity Lives which includes a Learning

Loan scheme. Working with senior

management the ULRs negotiated this exciting new facility which al-

lows staff to access funding for courses and have this deducted

from their wages—therefore elimi-

nating the financial barriers often associated with study. The facility

has since been extended to include computer equipment inline with the

Welsh Governments digital inclusion strategy.

ULRs at NPT Homes have been busy drafting a learning agreement with

their employer and have been in-

volved in a learning needs analysis.

The ULR at United Welsh Housing

Association has organised an Autism workshop and our friends at Perthyn

have developed an online informa-tion service for learners.

pleased to offer the K101: Access to Health & Social Care course.

To ensure this opportunity was maximized we worked with Open

University staff and organised a se-

ries of “Sign Up Sessions” where learners were able to sample study

modules delivered at university level before committing to the actual

course.

We were pleased to see 16 learners

at these sessions, and we were im-

UNISON has a long standing work-ing relationship with the Open Uni-

versity and we were keen to exploit this during the course of the Con-

necting Learners Project.

UNISON was successful in securing funding to allow learners access a

number of Open University pro-grammers FREE of charge. Stu-

dents could chose from a variety of short courses ranging from Psychol-

ogy to Management. We were also

pressed to learn that 32 students have since completed an Openings

certificate and an amazing 40 learn-ers achieving the K101: Access to

Health & Social Care Qualification.

Page 3

Helping Housing Associations

Spotlight On: Union Learning Reps

Partnership Working in Health & Social Care

Did you know…?

We were pleased to fund 63

workshops and activities on

behalf of our friends in Housing

Learners may continue to access FREE

learning opportunities via the UNI-

SON/Open University learning portal:

www.open.ac.uk/choose/unison/

flexilearn

“There is a clear role for ULRs in

raising awareness of issues and en-

couraging colleagues to improve their

skills”.

Roger Mc’Kenzie—Assistant Gen-

eral Secretary (UNISON)

Inspiring Learning Seminar—2013

Don’t Worry—We Will Soon Be Back…!

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded funding

to carry on our work for another three years!!!

And this time we are reaching even further:

As of 1st April 2013, we will known as:

Connecting Learners in the Third Sector in South & Mid Wales

and will welcome colleagues from Powys and Ceredigion.

As well as our partners in the community-voluntary sector we will also be working

with Private & Non-Registered Nursing Homes

Keep up to date with all the latest news: www.connectinglearners.wordpress.com

Developed a work based

learning pathway in Social Care

“Moved with the times” and

used Social Media to connect

with learners…

At times it was not easy! Like with

many multi-stakeholder projects there were hurdles along the way.

However as the statistics show, this was a successful project and would

like to thank those who helped us

achieve our aims:

UNISON Cymru Wales:

Gareth John—Regional Organiser (Education)

Helen Huelin—Regional Learning & Development Organiser

Our hosting organisation Com-munity Lives Consortium:

Rick Wilson, Chief Executive

Helen Waters & the Staff Develop-ment Team

Finance & Administration Staff

During the course of Connecting Learners we have been pleased to

support staff, employers and volun-teers across the Community-

Voluntary Sector.

Over the last three years, we have:

Engaged with 118 workplaces

Funded 115 workshops

amounting to £30,000

Identified and supported 12

Union Learning Reps

Jointly set up 5 workplace

learning committees

Developed 4 Best Practice

Guides

Supported 266 learners

through Taster Sessions

Funded 74 workshops ad-

dressing soft skills—eg. Confi-dence Building etc

Supported 205 learners to

achieve qualifications

Organised 20 Learning Road

Shows

Peter Thomas—”Godfather” of Con-necting Learners

Wales TUC Learning Services:

Development Officers—Roger Jones,

Mark Rees & Anne Jenkins

Learning Providers:

Peter Green of PJG Consultants

Workers Education Association (WEA)

Lifelong Learning Employment Training Swansea (LLETS)

Caroline Firth—Dyslexia Tutor

And the many training providers

who supported our project. Too

numerous to mention!

Thanks to the employer partners

who had faith in our project and demonstrated how employers and

trade unions can work together around a positive agenda.

And finally—the learners themselves who made it all worthwhile.

A Special Thanks to:

@clprojectwulf Connecting Learners South Wales