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Adult Continuing Education
Three-year development plan
2003 – 2006
(2004 update)
Contents / PageIntroduction / 3
Section One / 1.1 / Mission / 3
1.2 / Range and nature of provision offered and widening participation / 4
1.3 / Significant changes to provision / 5
1.4 / Meeting local priorities / 5
1.5
/Improving employer engagement
/ 61.6 / Approaches to quality improvement / 7
1.7
/Health & Safety
/ 71.8
/Financial Strategy
/ 91.9
/Accommodation strategy
/ 101.10 / Staff development plan / 10
1.11 / Management Information systems / 10
1.12 / Assumptions and risks / 11
Section Two / 2.1 / Headline Target 1: Learner numbers / 15
2.2 / Headline Target 2: Employer engagement / 19
2.3 / Headline Target 3: Success rates / 21
2.4 / Headline Target 4: Professional qualifications for teachers, trainers and lecturers / 24
Appendix 1: Working in partnership in Milton Keynes / 28
Appendix 2: Meeting local need / 32
Appendix 3: Workplace Training Strategy and Action Plan / 37
Appendix 4: Basic skills research results / 42
Appendix 5: Glossary / 44
Introduction
This three year plan reflects the needs of the local area and the ways in which Milton Keynes Council’s Adult Continuing Education (ACE) service expects to be able to meet some of those needs in partnership with other providers.
As a reflection of the Council’s desire to work in partnership, there are several sections that have been written with Milton Keynes College and appear in both institutions’ development plans.
SECTION 1
1.1 Mission
The Council’s mission for lifelong learning is to ensure that there are accessible, high quality, relevant and community-based, opportunities for the whole range of adults who live in Milton Keynes.
This inclusive provision is delivered by the Council’s Adult Continuing Education service and in partnership with local providers of learning opportunities for adults in Milton Keynes.
ACE is a Milton Keynes Council service, funded by the Learning and Skills Council, working to meet the needs of the local community. The mission therefore reflects the needs and interests of a range of stakeholders.
A review of the service’s mission took place in 2004. As a result it has been decided not to alter the mission statement at this time, but to consider it again following the outcomes of the L.S.C.’s Strategic Area Review when the statement may be altered to better reflect the ACE service’s position within the local providers’ network and priorities for action. The strategic direction of the service and therefore the mission statement will remain unchanged for now.
The mission supports the concept that lifelong learning is a process, which continues throughout life, and is not just discrete events or activities that are undertaken at particular points in a lifetime.
This mission contributes to Milton Keynes Council’s strategic aims and priorities, which are linked directly to the needs of the community, expressed through the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) aims. These are:
· Sustainable and high quality development
· A community for all
· A healthy, caring community
· Create a high quality learning community
· Sustainable and effective transport systems
· Housing that meets everyone’s needs
· A prosperous economy
· A safe community
(LSP Community Strategy Aims 2003 – 13)
Milton Keynes Council Corporate Priorities 2003-06 are:
1. Improving services that are not serving people well
2. Improving school standards
3. Improving the environment
4. Improving public transport
5. Giving older people the help they need to keep their independence
6. Providing affordable housing for those in need
7. Improving community leadership with partners
8. Creating social inclusion
ACE supports all these priorities in some way, but particularly priorities 2,5,7 & 8.
The mission is implemented through the following ACE strategic objectives. These are:
1. Provide and publicise an appropriate learning environment for all learners including those with learning difficulties and /or disabilities, that reaches out to meet community needs, and continuously assesses new needs
2. Increase the retention and achievement on courses where they are below national average
3. Maximise the use of, and opportunities for learning about, new technologies and flexible methods of learning.
4. Ensure that learners have access to information, advice and guidance, appropriate learning outcomes and progression routes from them
5. Monitor the quality of opportunities and maintain or improve quality year on year
6. Develop services with partners within Milton Keynes Council and beyond
7. Utilise human and financial resources in an efficient and effective manner
8. Monitor national, regional and local initiatives and develop services that respond to them
1.2 Range and nature of provision offered
Within Milton Keynes, there are two main providers of post 16 education (the Council, including its schools and ACE, and Milton Keynes College) and many smaller, specialist providers. Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes College are committed to work in partnership to meet the borough’s needs and aspirations.
Appendix 1 provides details of the background and progress of this approach.
The two institutions (Milton Keynes College and ACE) wish to ensure there are increasingly good progression routes and joint consideration of programme offers. Three pieces of work are planned or underway.
· A mapping of participation rates within each institution and between the two to identify “market penetration” and gaps.
· A mapping of progression routes for certain curriculum areas (e.g. ICT) to identify gaps and overlap
· A mapping of opportunities for people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, to identify opportunities and gaps.
· Participation in the 14-19 strategy group
· Basic skills staff development partnership
Some of these are not yet funded but will help these two bodies and others as well.
The needs analysis which follows in 1.4 identifies the widening participation priority groups as
· People from minority ethnic communities (particularly certain groups)
· 16-18 year olds not in education
· people from certain wards in MK
· older learners
· people with disabilities and/or learning difficulties
· men who are under-represented in adult learning
ACE will work with specialist providers and Milton Keynes College (as identified in 1.2 above) to meet the needs of these groups.
ACE provision will benefit from increased accommodation from September 2004. LSC capital funding has been agreed to support the service from 2004/2005. As a result a ten year lease is being taken out on the Cofferidge Close Training Centre in Stony Stratford (in the NW of the borough and town) which will provide sufficient space for the administration of the service as well as daytime and evening teaching rooms. The existing Westcroft training centre (in the west of the borough and town) will continue to be used by the service and provide additional daytime and evening teaching space. Both will provide additional capacity for daytime courses and some specialist teaching (IT and possibly cookery). This will help to provide courses where there is demand (e.g. daytime for older learners and some 16-18 year olds, certain curriculum areas as well as weekend courses’).
Partnership activity to meet specific needs (e.g., with Macintyre Care for people with learning difficulties) has been successful and the model for this will be discussed with Stantonbury and Leon Schools as a way of working in partnership. This may well also lead to some joint publicity on particular curriculum areas.
1.3 Significant changes to provision
Some growth of learner numbers is anticipated. Between the academic years of 1997/98 and 2003/04 the number of ACE learners increased by 32.27% and this growth is expected to continue but not necessarily at this rate. The service expects increase in basic skills, language and ICT students to continue. However, this needs to ensure there is increased quality including higher retention rates. The Learning and Skills Council’s targets for 16-19 year old enrolments are also challenging. Therefore the growth predicted in the targets is seen as realistic but not over optimistic. The fluctuations in the success rates, particularly for short courses will be investigated, however the 2003/04 data will not be complete until December 2004.
1.4 Meeting local priorities
Appendix 2 provides a more in depth summary of local characteristics and the implications for lifelong learning in Milton Keynes. These have been discussed with Milton Keynes College.
In summary, Milton Keynes has
· a population that is growing fast and has a youthful, but aging profile.
· a relatively high and growing participation rate in adult education.
· a growing percentage of people from minority ethnic communities, with particular groups showing significant educational characteristics, but generally good participation rate in adult education.
· lower than average levels of disabilities, though that is likely to grow, and increasing opportunities for participation in education.
· a growing number of business with a very large SME sector, and limited current engagement with the adult education service.
· a low unemployment rate and a very high employment participation rate
· a significant variation in affluence and this is mirrored in participation rates, though further research is needed
· relatively low educational achievements (including basic skills) though this is improving in school-age pupils year on year.
· relatively poor 16-19 education participation rate, though this has recently improved.
The service’s Business Plan for 2004/05 provides details of how the local demographic and employment information impacts on the priority objectives of ACE for 2003/04. It also links the MKOB Learning and Skills Council Strategic Objectives to all activity, both FE and ACL opportunities, and including Family Learning and learning in particular communities.
The service is part of the local 14-19 strategy group and this is seeking to ensure there is increased coherence between schools, the college, ACE and other providers, with input from LSC and MKELP. Mapping work is expected in 2004/05 to take this forward further.
The MKSM Education and Skills research which predicts a growth of 102,000 dwellings and 99,000 new jobs in the next 30 years (MK and Aylesbury Vale) will be used to predict local needs. The information will include current and future skills of the workforce and how the existing learning infrastructure will need to change to meet growth requirements. This will seek to include development of new Learning Centres which incorporate libraries and lifelong learning.
1.5 Improving employer engagement
The ACE Workplace Learning Strategy and Action Plan can be seen at Appendix 3
The following points provide the context for ACE:
· Discussions with VOICE, the MKCVO led forum for voluntary organisations interested in training activities, have identified developmental projects.
· Existing projects, for example the ESOL support provided to Buckingham Foods, which is a large employer in Bletchley, will continue to develop and additional contacts (e.g. Moore Place Hotel) will be pursued regarding Basic Skills courses.
· ACE supports the administration of the ASSIST project which provides advice and information to adults who are seeking to improve their employability and update their skills
· A significant proportion of those adults receiving basic skills support from ACE are doing so to improve their employability or enhance their skills to enable progression in their employment. The results of a research project which confirms this supposition can be seen at Appendix 4
· The Inclusive Learning team will offer staff development to the adult social care team of the Council and Macintyre Care.
· Research will be undertaken to determine how attending an ACE course can improve the employability of students.
1.6 Approaches to quality improvement
The Adult Continuing Education Service has a Quality Framework, which includes mechanisms for monitoring the quality of the provision. The framework supports a full annual self-assessment reporting (SAR) system, the actions derived from this are detailed in the Development Plan. This is based in part on a system of tutor observation which has been in place for many years, the Quality Improvement and Staff Developments Co-ordinator is responsible for maintaining and reviewing the quality of provision.
The Service has graded itself 3 overall, based on the Common Inspection Framework.
The Quality Improvement and Staff Developments Co-ordinator has participated in a RARPA project through LSDA which will inform the service’s ability to recognise and record learner progress in ACL.
The main features of the quality development plan for the next three years are:
· The Development of systems and the team to provide learning support
· All tutors to be observed at least once each year with feedback to each and follow up as needed. In 2003/04 70% were observed and the goal is to observe 100% in the 2004/05 academic year.
· Increased staff development in key areas and an increasing range of ways in which staff development takes place including e-learning.
· Increasing the success rates of students by ensuring that procedures are in place to improve retention and achievement including: pre-enrolment interviews for A, AS and GCSE students; letters and missed handouts being sent out by tutors to absent students; and follow-up calls to non-attending learners; staff development sessions.
· Increased analysis of data to identify where additional support is needed.
The percentage of qualified teachers in 2003/04 is 57.2% and is reported in the (updated) headline improvement targets this shows a drop in the number of qualified tutors however the number of tutors has increased from 220 in 2002/03 to 346 in 2003/04 many of whom have not yet had the opportunity to attend either the 7302 or 7407.
1.7 Health and Safety
The Service meets the requirements of Milton Keynes Council and its revised requirements for quarterly Health and Safety reviews of all premises. Termly fire alarm practices are carried out in all major centres, which are based in school premises. All tutors are offered annual training sessions in health and safety and are provided with details of their Health and Safety responsibilities in the Tutor Handbook.
Further improvements have been made in 2003/04 with the circulation of Risk Assessment forms for tutors, to be distributed with course files.
Students attending dance and sport courses are advised of their responsibility to confirm their suitability to the course with their doctor if they have a medical condition.