Education and training services

Tender description

It is recognised that the community and voluntary sector can provide some of the most innovative ways of providing learning opportunities to groups that have traditionally been hard to engage. Whilst Adult Community Learning and other support programmes support key groups of residents in Kirklees, there are still adults in the district who are yet to engage, hard to engage and are not ready to take up a more formal offer of learning or support. There is a requirement and a need for some residents to undertake pre-engagement activity as a pre-cursor to participating on longer skills programmes. We are seeking to appoint a delivery partner who will commission/work with a number of local grass root organisations and/or local community groups to deliver a range of short, varied and engaging pre-engagement activity in Kirklees that can continue to support our long term ambition for the district, targeting residents who are the furthest away from the labour market and will increase and diversify the number and type of adult learners in Kirklees, identifying and engaging under-represented, excluded and vulnerable groups and providing them with their ‘pre-first step’ into learning. Activities should take place in non-pressurised learning contexts where people understand learners’ needs and treat learners equally, thereby increasing their confidence and self-esteem and inspiring them to take the first steps into learning in safe and trusted environments. It should motivate them to grow in confidence, ambition, resilience and skills. Activities should also connect residents with supportive community networks as they progress towards and into further learning, volunteering and employment. It is acknowledged that, as this project aims to support initial engagement activity, that learners may try a number of different informal learning activities before progression into more formal learning or volunteering etc can occur. Activities to be delivered must be a wide range of high quality, challenging and inspiring activities and could focus on a range of themes/topics that support community cohesion, reduce isolation, improve outcomes for families, developments of hobbies and interests, lifestyle choices and to build learners’ knowledge and confidence to undertake further learning, volunteering or employment including but not limited to: • health and well-being including mental health, • digital skills, • Money management, • family learning and child development, • confidence building, • activities which includes innovative approaches to increasing confidence, motivation and personal resilience may be based around music, drama, cooking, gardening or other interests. Pre-Engagement Activities will help transform learner’s opportunities and help them to: • gain new skills to progress in employment, • improve their confidence to engage or re-engage with learning, • improve their health and social well-being, • improve aspirations and ambitions, • identify their personal goals and take actions to reach them, • better support themselves and their families. All activities should be planned and delivered by, or in partnership with, local grass root organisations or community groups with demonstrable strong links to local residents, based on their needs whilst ensuring economic relevance. The emphasis will be to inspire participants to realise their full potential and to empower them to have a positive outlook on accessing further learning and/or work. All provision must be locally designed, tailored training provision to engage those furthest from the workplace or learning.