Alan Johnson celebrates community learning in Hull

Alan Johnson congratulates a group of community learners from Hull

A Celebration of Learning Event earlier this year, hosted by Humberside Learning Consortium (HLC), saw guest speaker Alan Johnson, former Secretary of State for Education and Skills congratulating a special group of learners on their achievements.

HLC, which is funded by the Learning and Skills Council, supports the community and voluntary sector in accessing the appropriate learning and training programmes to raise aspirations and open up employment opportunities.

Much of the work undertaken by HLC is in response to the Government's agendas around social inclusion for disadvantaged communities, with the aim of raising the skills level of individuals and encouraging progression and cohesion in their communities. The event celebrated the achievements of three groups of learners at the end of a very demanding, year-long training programme.

The first group participated in a full Level 3 qualification in Managing Volunteers. Whilst the programme has elements of a conventional management qualification, it has an additional component of managing a workforce that is not contractually tied in any way to their organisation and which definitely poses some management challenges. Four participants have gained the full award and were presented with their certificates.

The second programme for which awards were presented was the new Level 4 qualification for Skills for Life tutors in literacy. Seven dedicated Voluntary and Community Sector tutors have completed this programme, including four participants from Black Minority Ethnic communities who received an additional support package funded from the LSC's Equal Opportunities Unit to address barriers to their participation.

The third group to be commended at the event had all completed qualifications in Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) which is vital for learners to enable them to select appropriate learning programmes and progress to their ultimate goals. 30 VCS participants have gained Level 2 IAG qualifications. Eight of the 30 came from BME organisations and are now acting as mentors in those organisations.

Presenting the awards, Alan Johnson said: "The work that is being done here is more important practically than anything else we are doing in education, so I would like to thank the HLC for organising this event. Congratulations to all of the candidates, thank you for giving up your time, a year long course takes a lot of hard work and dedication to do and I am so pleased it is being done and being done so successfully here in Hull."