Nottingham received £451,000 from the £20 million
Transformation Fund, launched by Government to offer grants for more than
213 innovative informal adult learning projects in England. In total the
East Midlands received £1,257,970. The Fund will bring to life
The Learning Revolution, a White Paper presented to
Parliament in March 2009.
The projects, many spearheaded by partnerships between public, private and
third sector organisations, will help improve mental health, physical
well-being, active citizenship and community cohesion, as well as providing
a stepping stone towards further learning, qualifications and employment
for many people.
Nottingham projects include:
After a successful bid for over £200,000, the Greater
Nottingham Partnership will establish county-wide informal adult
learning provisions, including 50 new venues accessible to over 5,000
learners.
Nottingham City Museums & Galleries will work in
conjunction with partner organisations to create a diverse array of
informal adult learning opportunities encompassing all adult skill and age
groups. The results of the scheme will be displayed in the Community
Gallery viewed by the 300,000 people a year who visit Nottingham Castle.
Double Impact, the drug and alcohol rehabilitation agency
in partnership with City Arts, has created a scheme aimed at offering
innovative, supported, informal learning opportunities for vulnerable
people from 'hard to reach' groups via the medium of arts workshops and art
venue visits..
Kevin Brennan, Minister for Further Education, Skills and Consumer
Affairs, said:
“We’re happy to announce 213 successful recipients of our
Transformation Fund grants, awarded in the face of stiff competition
from a field of 1,400 applications. With projects ranging from
creative writing and music to reading and art, it’s encouraging
to see so many imaginative ideas for giving adults more opportunities
to learn for the love of it.”
“The benefits of learning for pleasure in an informal setting are
wide-ranging, and they benefit the community as well as the individual.
I hope that many people will develop the confidence and the local
connections to take a big step towards a brighter future.”
The announcement about the latest Transformation Fund grants follows the
award of £1 million worth of ‘early bird’ funding in
July.
Alan Tuckett, Chief Executive of NIACE, added:
“NIACE is proud to have the role of supporting the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills in managing the Transformation Fund. We
argued in our response to the Informal Adult Learning consultation that
there is no better stimulus for local adult learning providers than the
creation of a fund to trigger innovation and new
partnerships.”
“There’s already evidence from the ‘early bird’
bids of how creative and imaginative community-based adult learning can
be when given the funding to put ideas into practice.”
Informal adult learning encompasses a wide variety of activities and can
range from a self-organised reading group in a village hall to a guided
visit to nature reserve or stately home. Other Learning
Revolution activities include The Learning Revolution
Festival: a month-long celebration of informal adult learning that
kicks off in October 2009.
