York Learning and North Yorkshire Adult Learning and Skills Engagement Strategy 2022-2026 Summary

Who we are

York Learning and North Yorkshire Adult Learning and Skills Service (ALSS)receive funding from the government through the Education Skills Funding Agency. This funding is used to offer learning that helps people to meet, to gain confidence, to improve health and well-being, to develop skills to improve job prospects and improve their communities. York Learning is part of City of York Council with ALSS part of North Yorkshire County Council.

What is the strategy for?

There are changes in education policy for people aged 16 and over. The strategy makes a clear link between learning and the skills needed in a changing job market. These changes put lots of focus on learning and education that are seen as high level skills. We strongly believe that lots of people don’t have the confidence or don’t actually know that by developing higher level skills they are able to move into new roles. We also know that for many people, learning may have an important impact on their health and how they feel. We want to show people that learning works, and this strategy sets out how we want to do that.

Keywords

• ESFA – The Education Skills Funding Agency is the organisation that provides funding for individuals aged 16 and over to study at schools, colleges, with local authorities or other providers.
• YNYLEP – York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership are an organisation funded through both government and private funding to carry out research and bring public, private and voluntary organisations together to enable businesses and individuals to meet their potential.
• Public Sector – Organisations funded by national and /or local government.
• Private Sector – Organisations that create products or deliver services with the aim of making a profit.
• Voluntary Sector – Organisations that are set up with the primary aim of making positive change, reinvesting money raised into this aim and not looking to make a profit
• Community Learning – Community learning funding is provided by the ESFA to develop skills, confidence, motivation and the ability to cope with challenge. It is hoped this then leads to progress to other courses or employment, improvement in health and well-being and / or the development of stronger communities
• Adult Learning funding – This funding, known as the Adult Education Budget or AEB is designed to provide formal qualifications to people aged 19 and over

What is the strategy?

Through the new strategy, we want to:

1. Be clear about the purpose and aims of the adult learning services within both authorities. This will help local residents and other organisations to understand the benefits gained from attending our programmes.
2. Design programmes that meet the needs of individuals and help them to progress, this may be into other programmes, (with ourselves or most appropriate provider)into better jobs or into further community activities.
3. Reach more people. We know that many of our current learners have been on courses with us before. That is great and shows just how much people enjoy what they do with us. We do need to reach more people and need to work with people who don’t currently see learning as something they will benefit from. We want to bring learning to places that bring people together and use these communities and our funding to have a greater positive impact.
4. Be the provider of choice for those people furthest from the skills agenda. The decision to learn can be a big one, and at the same time, many people don’t realise just how much positive impact learning can have. By working with community groups, by being in community spaces and by offering learning in different ways we want to overcome those fears or show people just how learning can lead to greater opportunity.
5. Show that community learning really works. Lots of research by government and YNYLEP suggests that at the moment community learning doesn’t have enough impact. We know it does, and it can do more, we want to protect that. The strategy has us engaging with more partner organisations, (including the voluntary sector)to reach more people and to support individuals and communities by making this money work harder. We will also celebrate and capture its impacts, sharing this widely so more people can benefit.
6. Grow to deliver in areas that other providers can’t. Being large organisations, rooted in the community gives us the chance to be efficient, and our social purpose drives us to support the widest needs of the community and the businesses in it. We will work with businesses and groups to be able to offer training that other providers are not able to for funding or location reasons.
7. Support the writing of clear progression pathways. Knowing where to go for learning, or what courses you need to complete to help you progress, can be scary and complex. We want to work with other providers of learning and education to make this simpler.
8. Provide effective Value for Money. Everyone knows that budgets are being squeezed, and this is the case in learning. We will look at how we deliver, where we deliver and when we deliver so that residents of York and North Yorkshire are able to access learning in ways that are useful to them. We don’t want to do this by adding strain to authority budgets or by setting unaffordable charges for our programmes. This strategy looks to work smarter, targeting resources at those most in need whilst supporting as many as people as possible to learn and progress