Developing a CLD community of practice for the north of Scotland

The North Alliance is… a partnership of community learning and development (CLD) practitioners from the seven north of Scotland CLD partnerships. aiming to improve opportunities and access to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for the CLD workforce in the Partnership area working towards the ultimate outcome of improving positive learning outcomes in communities.

Who’s involved? How does it work? A steering group represents public and voluntary sector practitioners each of the northern CLD partnerships - Shetland, Orkney, Highland, Western Isles, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City – have local authority representation each of the local CLD partnerships also nominates a representative of the voluntary/third sector – these reps include local Councils of Voluntary Service and national organisations like LEAD and the WEA the steering group drives the work of the Partnership.

Values and principles Self-determination - respecting the individual and valuing the right of people to make their own choices Inclusion - valuing equality of both opportunity and outcome, and challenging discriminatory practice Empowerment - increasing the ability of individuals and groups to influence issues that affect them and their communities through individual and/ or collective action Working collaboratively – maximising collaborative working relationships including collaborative work with participants, learners and communities Promotion of learning as a lifelong activity – ensuring awareness of a range of learning opportunities enabling access to relevant options at any stage of their life

What has the North Alliance done so far? carried out a training needs analysis of the CLD workforce agreed its business plan run two conferences, one focused on Curriculum for Excellence and the Big Society offering online opt in established a virtual learning environment (VLE) in partnership with the University of Aberdeen currently awaiting an announcement on funding for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) that will develop the use of the VLE.

Access to the VLE open to all CLD practitioners in the seven CLD Partnership areas private discussion areas available on request to groups with a shared interest a web page will be open to anyone using the usual search engines which will direct enquirers to the VLE but the VLE itself will be password protected.

What else is planned? learning exchanges - the first about to be launched with the theme of sustainability local learning sets will be networked through the VLE and will share their findings online and at the North Alliance 2011 conference following a huge demand for good materials on the Curriculum for Excellence, work is also going on to create user-friendly material which will be open to a wide audience to use.

How is all this funded? seven local partnerships pooled a percentage of their WALT Challenge and LLUK Upskilling funding allocations Aberdeenshire Council currently manages the finances on behalf of the Partnership if successful, the KTP will be funded through the national KTP programme and managed through the voluntary sector working with the University of Aberdeen.

Good practice? Secrets of success north of Scotland has traditionally missed out on a lot of CPD opportunities because of access and costs partners recognise the value of sharing resources and pooling skills and knowledge - especially across sectors - to develop innovative and cost-effective learning and development opportunities NA has ‘put its money where its mouth is’ - pooling resources, using new technology from the start, frequently using video conferencing to save meeting costs and widening conference participation through streaming.

Jan - March 09 Steering Group Consultants Engage devlinbe attie CPD Survey (on-line and focus groups) Gatherings Video conferencing and contract tendering Agree Business Plan Expanded steering group – third sector Draft Business Plan prepared Review and Planning day Plan first one day conference Nairn Conference Upskilling Partners pool 60% of year 1 allocation Apr – June 09 Jul - Sept 09 Oct - Dec 09 Jan - March 10 Apr - June 10 Jul - Sep 10 Oct- Dec 10 Jan - March 11 Planning Meetings Partners pool 60% of year two allocation Knowledge Transfer Partnership Project developed with Aberdeen Uni Awaiting decision VLE VLE framework developed LLUK Dev Worker support Dialogue - Standards Council, LLUK, LTS. 2 day conference on Big Society and CfE – online opt in Conference planning Partnership agreement

The virtual environment

One place to find useful resources

Places to collaborate

Evidence of activity!

Tracking participation

and some parting feedback One of the facilitators from the ‘Big Society – getting it right in Aberdeen’ events said on March 23 rd 2011 ‘The participants saw it wasn’t just a talking shop – through the VLE there were ways to stay involved with the people they had met, contact those who had come to other sessions and keep on discussing how they could support and help each other.’