Erasmus+ 2017 Project
CROSSING
BARRRIERS, BREAKING FRONTIERS: Consortium of East Madrid Adult Education
Schools for Lifelong Education.
Training course ‘Bridging Education to
Work Ethic’
Dudley
Council, England – 1st to 7th July de 2018
Sunday 1st
July – Arrival to Birmingham
Meet
with Alan
Wood, Director of Edulink Europe Inc
(course provider) for introduction to the British Education System.
Monday 2nd
July – Adult & Community Learning
Adult
and Community Learning is the name given to adult education in the UK. The
management team is at the Dudley Archives, Heritage and
Local History Center – Dudley Metropolital Borough Cuncil (MBC), but
the Community Learning Manager/s make regular visits to the different schools,
which are called Neighbourhood Learning Centres NLCs.
9.30
Meet with Janet Lavelle, Adult & Community
Learning Manager, at Heritage, Local History, and Archives Centre - Dudley
MBC.
10.00
Visit to Castle and Priory Neighbourhood Learning
Centre (NLC.)
Where I can observe:
1. Jobs Fair with Job Centre Plus
Adult & Community Learning organises Job Fairs in different venues. Job providers (usually European Union or Government funded) provide traineeships and apprenticeships. In the case of Skills Training UK, learners have formal education say 2 days a week and work 3 days a week. They get some pocket money every week too.
2. British Sign Language (BSL) Class
The first level lasts 10 weeks and there will be a ten-week Level 2 in September. The idea to provide the course originally came from a survey the Adult & Community Learning did at one of the Primary Schools in the area among parents. Two of them claimed to have the need to upskill by learning BSL. One of the learners in this group is an assistant in a Primary School (every Primary School class in England and most Secondary Schools has assistant to help teachers in their everyday life in the class and support their work). They need to have qualifications. BSL is important in some classes where there’s lack of communication among students of all ages, as it helps improve communication. Some schools teach BSL to their students, especially where there are students with special educational needs.
11.00
Visit to Brierley Hill Neighbourhood Learning
Centre (NLC)
· Art class learners working on Heritage and Culture Projects
objective: Black Country Day exhibition.
The academic
year is divided in 3 10-week courses, 3 hours a week, and learners pay for part
of the course. Each of them has painted their own painting to exhibit on Black
Country Day.
There is a
volunteer assisting the tutor in anything he needs.
· Meet with ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Tutor
Adult Education
is organised as follows:
o
Pre-Entry à For people who cannot read or write
o
ESOL à Entry
1, 2 & 3.
o
Functional Skills – Levels 1
& 2. It’s the equivalent to GCSE levels, and then learners can access
college.
ESOL – Learners
are taught.
a)
English and Maths (they have
exams at the end of each term)
b)
Employability training
(Portfolio)
The course is
organised in Units, and after learners have taken a unit or some, they do their
portfolio and send it to NOCN for them to certify.
They learn the
basic skills (L, Sp, R, Wr) + Employability.
ESOL Tutor is a
Primary School Teacher from Greece. She arranges the course according to one of
the awarding bodies. Awarding bodies are:
1) NOCN
https://www.nocn.org.uk/what-we-do/esol-skills-for-life-and-international/esol-skills-for-life-sample-assessments/
2) City & Guilds
3) Ascentis
She prepares her
own materials following one of the awarding bodies, NOCN in this case.
Sometimes
there’s a gap between the educational level they have reached at the end of
ESOL and the level they need to have when they access Functional Skills, so in
come schools they provide ESOL and Cooking, or ESOL and Employability,…
13.00
Return to Dudley Archives,
Heritage and Local History Center - Dudley MBC
14.00 Heritage and Cultural visits –
Red House Glass Cone – Stourbridge
Tuesday 3rd
July – University of Wolverhampton
9.45
Meet with Lisa Luzajic, International Officer from Careers Enterprise and the Workplace.
10.00
– Meet with Scott Knight for a tour of the Art Block (School of Arts)
The fee for British people to study at University of Wolverhampton School of Arts is 9000 stirling pounds a year. The cost is different for foreigner students.
There is a wide range of courses: Textiles and Surface patterns, Illustration, Product Design, Furniture Design, Animation, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Fashion, Public Relations, Photography, Fine Art, Computer Games Design, Multimedia Journalism, Film and Television Studies, Media, Sculpture and Environmental Art, Painting and Printmaking, Glass and Ceramics. All the courses basically involve practical methodology so students learn by doing.
Students can join a full-time course, thereby finishing their degree after 3 years. It is also possible to choose a part-time course, so students normally graduate after 6 years.
The school is fully equipped with the most modern technology.
11.00
– Return to Careers
Enterprise and the Workplace to learn about
work placements in British education.
11.30
– Full Enterprise Tour with Mike Taylor. He provides all information on their SPEED programme
and about International Placements in the
Careers, Enterprise and the
Workplace centre.
They receive European funding for
developing their programmes: ‘Enterprise Action’ and ‘STEM’, both under the
‘European Regional Development Plan’ and they expect to receive funds from
British Government after Brexit.
They have a Social Incubator the students
can use. They also rent rooms for companies or students.
12.00
- International Placements and Enterprise
and Employability Award (TEF)
Meeting with International Placements
Assistant, who provides information about how the University of Wolverhampton
embeds or integrates employability in the curriculum by means of the Enterprise
and Employability Award (TEF).
Some universities have an employability
module instead of embedding employability in the curriculum.
Students’
skills analysis. They follow a process to analyse the students’ skills, which
consist of: self-assessment
students’ skills à reflection back on the skills they have gained à identification of some gaps and how they can be improved à write a resumé
Plan: 1) CV, 2) Skills, 3) Interviews – and
having an opportunity to practice
14.00 Heritage and Cultural visits –
The Crooked House
Wednesday 4th
July -Adult & Community Learning
09.30
– Meet with Janet Lavelle at the Dudley Archives, Heritage and Local History Center - Dudley MBC.
10.00
– Partner provision Wordsley
School (Business & Enterprise and Music College)
|
|
The adult school is called Learning 4 Life,
and they use the basement of the College. They have a kitchen everyone
included students can use, 2 classrooms and an office.
They have private classes. They hire the tutor and
he/she brings people in that pay for the classes.
Learners are more socially connected and less
isolated. These classes encourage them to leave their homes to do something
that is really interesting for them. It increases their confidence and
optimism, and it helps the National Health Service reduce mental/any other
issues these people may have.
|
I observe a Spanish Language class where
students with uneven ages have been attending the school year. The teacher
follows a practical methodology and promotes the students’ oral and writing
skills.
|
|
I also observe an Art Class students have been
attending for years. They are all retired people, but they affirm it’s a
wonderful thing to have this class as, for some of them, it’s the only way to
take them out of their homes. They pay 3,5 pounds per hour, and they attend
one day for 2 hours. The teacher is very good, they say. This is the last day
before the summer break and they are finalising their paintings. Learner
exhibition: They have most of their paintings exhibited in big boards in the
entrance and in the class.
|
11.00
Visit to Roseland House
- Adult Social Care Learners and Community
Provision.
Roseland House is a house that was
refurnished to make it a place for reunion in the community offering a lounge
area with armchairs, 2 classrooms and a kitchen. It is located in one of the
lowest areas in Dudley, with so many family issues, unemployment and
immigration. Education and community here are among the most extreme
conditions.
It has been difficult for the Adult &
Community Learning to make it known among residents, but eventually they have
it used for classes and it’s become much more than just classes to learners. A
group of women with difficult backgrounds joined the course ‘Adult Social Care’
and they have all been successful so they all got their certificate. It’s a 2-year
course learners study in College, but these students are allowed to study it in
Roseland House.
Adult learners needn’t have the GCSE to study
at College. It depends on what college they join. Some colleges require adult
students to have for example Level 1 (Functional Skills) or Entry 1/2/3, but
again, it depends on the college. Others require adult learners to study for
Functional Skills at the same time. Others like the one the women at Roseland
have joined do not have that requirement, so some of these learners are
studying entries 1/2/3 and at the same time they are taking the 2-year course
in Social Care & Community Provision. For this course, the Adult &
Community Learning hired a Tutor for the first year. Now they have asked the
college to provide the school with a Tutor, so the tutor in Roseland Home will
be the same as in college. Some of the learners tried attending classes at college,
but they didn’t feel comfortable enough with the idea of being the eldest in
the class among so many youngsters (they didn’t feel comfortable among them).
In Roseland House they feel at home.
13.00
Return to Dudley Archives, Heritage and
Local History Center - Dudley MBC.
The Adult & Community Learning has a
team of 4 recruiters, one in each area the borough, and their objective is to
make the school accessible to everyone and to let people know they can come in
and feel a part of their community. They way they make this is by attending any
meetings organised in the surrounding, where they talk to people and enquire
about their interest and they courses they’d like to take.
14.00 Heritage & Cultural visits
– City of Birmingham
Thursday 5th
July- University of Wolverhampton Telford Campus
9.00
– Campus Tour.
Discussion around Technology
learning, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and Women in STEM.
11.30 Heritage and Cultural Visit - Bridgnorth Station
