Adult Community & Family Learning

Our aim is

To work in partnership to inspire and support the citizens of Swindon to achieve their full potential and in so doing advance the health and well-being of their communities

What is Adult Community and Family Learning?

Adult Community and Family Learning is concerned with the promotion and delivery of

• Personal and Community Development Learning (PCDL)
• Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities (NLDC)
• Wider Family Learning (WFL) and
• Family Language, Literacy and Numeracy (FLLN)

This is achieved through management of the funding provided by the Wiltshire and Swindon Learning and Skills Council.

We do this by working with a range of internal and external partners drawing on the expertise, experience and knowledge of these partners to deliver our Adult Community and Family Larning provision aimed at meeting the needs of adults and families in Swindon.

What sort of learning opportunities are offered?

The definition of the kind of learning we deliver is best summed up by the LSC’s definition of the funding streams:

• Personal and Community Development Learning (PCDL) is learning for personal development, cultural enrichment, intellectual or creative stimulation, and enjoyment. It is also learning developed with local residents and others to build the skills, knowledge and understanding for social and community action.
• Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities (NLDC) is focussed on increasing the take-up of learning of disadvantaged and excluded groups in Swindon
• Wider Family Learning (WFL) is intentional learning which is intergenerational, can be both informal or formal and provides an enjoyable learning experience that can be a foundation for a greater sense of citizenship, that promotes lifelong learning, may involve the development of a wide range of skill and promotes health and wellbeing.”
• Family Language, Literacy and Numeracy programmes (FLLN) offer learning opportunities to those parents and their children who are in most need so that they can improve their literacy, language and numeracy skills.

Finding out more

If you want to find out more about community learning opportunities or apply for funding to provide learning opportunities, here are the options:

• Your views as a learner can be represented through the four local and one town-wide Learning Groups.
• Learning Groups involve representation from all Learning Providers in Swindon: the voluntary sector; SBC Learning Ambassadors; Children’s Centres and Schools, and faith organisations. They meet to identify learning needs, avoid duplication of provision and share best practice
• Swindon Borough Council's Learning Ambassadors play a vital role in helping to identify need, engage and support learners.  The success of our widening participation programme has been largely due to the Learning Ambassadors and Local Learning Groups, providing year on year improvements in participation.

To find out more about any of these options, please use this link to e-mail cawillis@swindon.gov.uk

For more information contact:

Carol Willis
Neighbourhood Learning Co-ordinator
Swindon Borough Council
Learning and Engagement Teams - Community Directorate
Premier House
Station Road
Swindon, SN1 1TZ

Tel: 01793 466548
Mobile: 07824 868412
e-mail: cawillis@swindon.gov.uk

Jackie Crowther
Family Learning Co-ordinator
Learning & Engagement Teams - Community Directorate
Swindon Borough Council
Premier House
Station Road
Swindon, SN1 1TZ

Tel:  01793 466313
Mobile: 07766368277
e-mail: jcrowther@swindon.gov.uk