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REPORT

on the

Adult Community Education fund 2001

Presented to the City of Cork VEC,

21 June 2001

The purpose of this report

The purpose of this report is to illustrate how the Adult Community Education Funds [ALCE] were utilised during the year 2000 on the returns received to date. 

Introduction

Adult and Community Education within Cork City is as dynamic as it is diverse. 

q       Its decentralised nature has provided a mechanism through which a large population of adults have access to a wide variety of educational programmes.

q       It has empowered those who are marginalized within the community through accessible learning environments.

The ALCE fund allocation is dispersed as teaching hours to the various Adult and Community Education Groups.  The main categories within ALCE are:

·        Family Resource Centres

·        Community Education, [miscellaneous]

·        Home School Community Liaison

·        Travellers’ Education

·        Older Person’s Education

·        Disability & Health Education. 

Response from the Centres

67% of forms that had been forwarded to the groups have been returned and are included in this analysis. All of the Family Resource Centres and the Travellers Education Group returned their forms while 90% of the Home School Liaison Group returned theirs.   

Number of Participants.

2,412 adults accessed community education via the ALCE fund.  These are divided by gender as can be seen in Figure 1. 

Figure 1: Gender Distribution

Figure 2: Gender Distribution per group

1. Women are the primary participants in ALCE programmes.
2. Disability [28%] and Retired [24%] groups show the highest rate of male participation. This is most likely due to the social and employment factors of these groups. 
3. There is awareness by groups of the need for increased male participation.  This can be seen in the Travellers group who currently have no male participants but who have requested additional [50] hours for a Men’s group.

Type of Courses

The learners take part in 214 courses taught by 194 community tutors [counted per centre].  They are attracted to the programmes through local networking, newsletters and local advertising.

Adult and Community learners have chosen the following programmes:

Figure 3: Course selection in total and by gender

Within ALCE, the most popular three courses are computers, arts and crafts and personal development.  A higher proportion of men take computers than women, although in absolute terms, 405 women take computers while 111 men take computers.

The top three positions change according to the sector offering the programme. 

This perhaps reflects the resources that are available [i.e. computers] and the need that has been established.

However, it also could suggest that tutor availability plays a role in the type of course offered rather than the need of the community?

The need for area network planning is highlighted in this regard.

Figure 4: Top three courses selected by individual groups.

Aims & Priorities

The programmes on offer should reflect the needs of individuals and is exemplified by the underlying rationale of the ALCE groups towards their learners. 

The priority of Community Education providers, is to encourage active participation by individuals in local communities in order to develop individual and community empowerment. 

This can best be illustrated by the comments of The Coordinator of the Mahon Resource Centre when she says:

Participants … improve their knowledge and expand their thinking …improve their communication skills, grow in self awareness, self confidence and self esteem, leading to discovery of their own gifts and talents.

A consistent theme throughout The Family Resource Centres is to provide support, opportunities and enable people take control of their lives.

Their objectives are

q       To provide educational opportunities,

q       To relieve loneliness and isolation and

q       To create a non-threatening meeting place for people within the community.

The Home School Liaison groups have as their priority

q       The empowerment of parents and other relevant adults in school children’s lives.

q       To promote active co-operation between the home and school and

q       To raise awareness in parents of their own capacities to help their children in education.

The Coordinator in Blackpool illustrates the aim of the community groups:

“The aim is to increase education opportunities and make adult education more accessible.  This is seen as vital to improve personal development, self-confidence and pride.  The belief is that by nurturing this in an individual it will spill over into their families and from there into the community”.

Targeting

In targeting participants of the programmes, there is a great sense of understanding of the needs of communities as groups endeavour to encourage a return to education. The Coordinator of the Family Resource Centre in Farranree says that her group targets:

Families and individuals in need of support and facilities in order to develop personally, humanly and spiritually. These include the long-term unemployed; people on low incomes and social welfare recipients; people suffering from isolation and with few coping skills; adults with poor communication skills, who have difficulties with relationships; adults who wish to further their own development by second chance education.

In general, the community groups target participants through a diverse set of mechanisms within the community.

The community groups draw participants through the use of local networking, newsletters and local advertising.

Utilisation of Tutor Hours [as per returns to date]

Within each category, some groups had used more than their allocated hours such as the Mahon Family Resource centre who had been allocated 300 hours and had used 374 hours. 

At the other end of the spectrum, the Irish Wheelchair Association had been allocated 50 hours and used none. 

However, when looking at these situations, it is notable that these situations occurred because of particular circumstances. For the most part, centres did not wish to lose their allocation.  

 For example, the Irish Wheelchair Association notes that

Due to the inappropriateness of accommodation during 2000, we were unable to plan programmes with certainty…. This situation has been resolved. And past experience convinces us that the hours and tutorials made available through the VEC schemes have been very beneficial to users.        

Evaluation and Effectiveness

In evaluating the effectiveness of programmes, groups use a variety of methods:

1.      Continued interest from year to year

2.      Reports from organisers

3.      Participant evaluation at the end of each session or programme

4.      Completion of questionnaires and evaluation sheets.

5.      Attendance

6.      Informal discussions

7.      Requests for more advanced programmes

The general impression one receives from the questionnaires is that

1.      The evaluation is ad hoc and there is no focus on the effectiveness of the programmes. 

2.      Continued interest from year to year may have very little to do with the educational effectiveness of the programme.

3.      Reports from organisers are by their nature subjective and give little information about the course from the learners’ perspective. 

4.      Completion of questionnaires and evaluation sheets are only effective if they are monitored and remedial action taken if necessary.

5.      However in speaking with many learners over the years “a strong impression” emerges that these courses are very worthwhile and beneficial.

6.      An overemphasis on documentation may be counterproductive.

 Conclusion & Recommendations

1.      The questionnaires completed by the co-ordinators of the ALCE groups show the great and diverse work that is being carried out by groups within the City. 

2.      There is a remarkable diversity in course provision and a high level of participation.

3.      The interest, enthusiasm and commitment of the co-ordinators can be seen in their awareness of the needs of the community in which they work, on the many courses they provide with limited resources and the dedication they have to their work.  

4.      While the majority of participants are women, men are represented, albeit at a low level.  A more concerted effort to increase the male participation rate is necessary.

5.      Future questionnaires should ask in what ways have the co-ordinators endeavoured to provide increased equality of access between groups.

6.      There is no information throughout the responses of the level of participation [in non-focused] adult Community education centres by minority groups?

7.      Targeting participations enables them to access programmes appropriate to their needs.

8.      The community education groups should come together as one network and advertise Citywide to increase the awareness of the general population of the education that is taking place. This would have a number of advantages - of attracting participants, volunteers and increasing public awareness of this work.

9.      All the groups are aware of their priorities and these are very firmly based on the needs of their immediate communities. 

10.  The groups who have not used their hours effectively will be targeted in an effort to encourage networking with other groups and tutors, to offer different programmes and thus increase participation of the community.

11.  In evaluating programmes, perhaps co-ordinators should consider an agreed method of evaluation to obtain objective information on the effectiveness of the programmes that they organise.

end