Promoting basic skills to adults – the Deeside College experience

When the Basic Skills Agency announced its programme of local promotion grants to promote basic skills, Gill Downer and her colleagues at Deeside College took action. Although they currently work with over 1,700 basic skills students, they felt there were still others they weren’t reaching.

They came up with the idea of running taster courses in the community, using a range of local venues and offering an interesting mix of topics. However, to take advantage of the funding they had limited time to deliver what they’d set out to achieve.

Exploiting their contacts was the key. Amanda Morgan, Basic Skills Lecturer, explains: ‘we discovered there was a group of young mothers meeting in a pub every Tuesday afternoon with their young children. We asked the landlady if she’d be happy for us to offer some activities for them, and she was only too pleased to help. So I went along and did some nail art with them…..after a bit, once they got to know me and got into it, they were hooked!’

Over two weeks in March 2007 they held a programme of 30 taster sessions, on subjects ranging from nail art, floristry, card craft and healthy eating to computers, English for speakers of other languages, Welsh for parents and children, ‘making ends meet’ and form-filling. The sessions were held in pubs, community centres, an old pavilion and other places in the community where people met. From this, the interest in further learning opportunities has grown and developed, beyond all expectations.

Gill Downer, Basic and Key Skills Programme Area Manager, is the driving force for the initiative, which is taking basic skills to people in the community: ‘We’re running courses in these venues in the hope that we can eliminate any barriers to learning, such as entering a classroom or a college building. We want our learners to feel comfortable in their surroundings.’

Gill sees the taster sessions as a great way to work in a relaxed and friendly way with new learners, and introduce basic skills support alongside other activities. The College’s partnerships with Communities First and the Welsh College of Horticulture were crucial to making things happen fast - these links were already firmly in place.

The results speak for themselves: of some 130 new learners who have taken part in the tasters, over 80 so far have enrolled on new college courses – in nail art, card craft, computer skills, basic skills, access courses and a childcare foundation course! These are young people who would not have crossed the college threshold without the confidence they have just gained in their ability to learn. And they are all learners with basic skills needs.

Gill and Amanda are now planning to reach some dads and that may involve learning some new skills – snooker and darts are next on the agenda!

Facts and figures

Overall some 130 people attended the tasters, most falling into the 19-39 age group. Of these, 80 have now enrolled on new college courses.

The first 102 included 33 over 50s, and 8 under 18s. They attended the following taster sessions:

84% rated the tasters as ‘very good’
13% rated them as ‘good’
3% rated them as ‘OK’ (these were in the 16-24 age group)

There were no ‘poor’ ratings.

For further information, contact Gill Downer at Deeside College: downerg@deeside.ac.uk