Highland success at Good Practice Awards in Adult Learning 2010
A project for which the Highland Adult Literacies Partnership was successful in being granted LEADER funding has received a national award for good practice in adult learning from Scotland’s Learning Partnership.
The award winning project was a conference for adult literacy and numeracy learners which was organised and run by adult literacy and numeracy learners supported by tutors. 21 learners from across the seven northern local authority areas (Shetland, Orkney, Western Isles, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Highland) were involved in the planning, running and delivery of the conference entitled Learners Got Talent which was held in Nairn in March of this year.
Because of the logistics of bringing together such a widespread group electronic technology was utilised for communication. After an initial face to face meeting members of the group kept in touch through email, video conferencing and telephone, but the main tool, which proved by far the most successful, was through use of a wiki (computer website where ideas can be shared) which was set up specifically for the purpose. Areas worked together to organise specific parts of the arrangements from booking, workshops, videoing and accommodation to report writing and overall coordination.
The actual conference was well attended by learners from all over the North and Convener of Highland Council, Councillor Sandy Park gave an opening welcome. There were some inspiring key speakers and also a good choice of workshops. A very popular workshop on making felt jewellery was delivered by Donna Overmeer Stuart of Highland who also co-presented the main sessions on the actual day. A numeracy “bear hunt” organised by Sheila Maher, WEA, from Highland also proved popular with delegates.
A representative group of learners and tutors attended the Good Practice in Adult Learning Awards presentation ceremony in Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms to collect their award.
Mary Rhind, Adult Literacies Coordinator with The Highland Council said, “We were delighted to receive a Good Practice Award for our project and to be up there alongside the best practice in Scotland. This was a totally innovative project in that we don’t think that literacy learners have ever planned and organised a conference together, never mind across seven authorities. Another innovation was bringing learners from far flung places together by using technologies which were new, and potentially challenging, to them.
The approach we used proved itself to be an effective way for learners to communicate and by pooling resources across the north we were able to create opportunities for them to get involved in something on a larger scale than would have been possible had we just been working on our own. The wide range of tasks required in putting on an event such as this meant that those involved gained lots of new skills and experience. It was telling that one of the Highland learners on the organising team could not attend the award ceremony as they had since enrolled on to two part time college courses. My colleagues in the other areas have reported similar positive progression for their participants.
“It was a really exciting project from which we all gained and to receive a reward for it as well is a tremendous unexpected bonus.”