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Community
Education
Report 2001
Table of
Contents
Community
Education
Report 2001
Summary Conclusions &
Recommendations
The City of Cork VEC/Adult
Education Board, for many years supported new developing educational
services as a first point of contact for adults re-entering education and
training.
Provision is made through the
literacy schemes, family resources centres, home school community liaison, third
age learners, travellers and disability groups.
Financial contributors to
Community Education include the Department of Education and Science, the City of
Cork VEC/Adult Education Board, Cork City Partnership, FAS, Department of Social
and Family Affairs, Southern Health Board and others.
This Annual Report 2001
-
Is based on the
community education provision supported by funding from the Department of
Education and Science to the City of Cork Vocational Education Committee and
Adult Education Board with allocation of teaching hours made to
individual community education groups.
-
It reviews the information submitted
from community education groups in the City of Cork who accessed teaching hours from the City of
Cork Vocational Education Committee.
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It presents an overview of a new developing participative
Community Education structure including the
Area-Based Networks, which during 2001were in their infancy,
the Forum, and membership of the
Adult Education Board
-
It shows
-
How teaching hours were allocated and how these hours were used per
course, individual, per network
-
How learners are encouraged to be part of each stage of development of
community education.
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It identifies as the focus [the Aims/objectives of CEgroups] of community education the provision of
programmes for those who wish to enter education and for those who wish to be
part of the progression routes identified in the White Paper on Adult
Education.
The report
finds [Conclusions]
-
That there are dynamic and varied courses on offer
within the City.
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That a number of educational disciplines are
under-represented.
-
The
data showed that the majority of courses offered are pre-foundation level
courses.
-
That the majority of those who tutor on programmes,
while skilled in their subject area, have yet to take the Adult Tutor Training
Course offered by the City of Cork VEC.
The report
recommends [In response to the data collected]
-
Participation Rates; equal gender participation;
promotion of male participation
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The provision & development
of programmes/courses; Community
Education will develop strategies in order to offer programmes in areas that are, at present, under-represented;
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Accreditation of Courses; In addition
to pre-foundation courses, Community Education will encourage foundation and
Level 1 FETAC accreditation.
-
Tutor Qualifications; Community
Tutors will be encouraged to seek qualifications in Adult Teaching Methodology;
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Acquisition
of information; report forms
will be redesigned in order to collect more appropriate data, and
-
On-line
access to questionnaires and statistics will be developed.
Participation Rates
Participation Rates are very high with a growing number of
male participants in community education and this is very positive. There
should be a continued promotion of equal gender participation.
Provision & development of Programmes / Courses
It can be seen that those who wish to enter Community Education for the first time have
many courses available to them. These cover a wide range such as computer
applications, personal development, art, art and craft, communications etc.
The courses
that are on offer attract many people within the community.
Data should be
collected to ascertain why individuals took specific courses.
This data should
aim to establish:
a)
If courses
are taken by individuals because these are the courses that are on offer, or
b)
If courses
are tailor-made to suit individuals coming together as a group.
This will allow
an opportunity to explore the reasons why particular courses are popular within
the community.
Community Education
provides for diverse programmes as previously noted.
In order to widen and
deepen the learning experiences at this level, it is a recommendation of this
report that Community groups look to expanding courses in order to represent a
wider variety of courses that can create opportunities for progression routes
and/or introductory courses in further education.
Particular emphasis should be
placed on providing courses in under-represented disciplines such as community
science, community mathematics, community law, and community culture and
community social studies.
Accreditation of courses
Educational progression is an important
element for Community Education Groups.
This report shows a gap between this principle and the provision of courses that
will facilitate such a progression. The small number of certified
courses offered is noted. All courses offered have a mechanism
of certification through FETAC.
With certification, community learners may gain
exemptions through the Accreditation of Prior Certified Learning (APCL) and
access further education.
Courses provided in community
education are offered for those who are entering into the arena of adult
education.
Their focus is on the process of self-awareness, facilitating
identification and acquisition of skills, ability and talent
from which adult community learners progress on the educational ladder and take
FETAC foundation and level 1 programmes.
FETAC qualification offers an opportunity for
accreditation for most of the courses offered in community education.
From the data collected, there appears to be a "predominance" of pre-foundation
courses.
Is it now time to look at foundation and level 1 accreditation for
community courses?
The questions that should be
considered are:
a)
Do community
courses have FETAC accreditation?
b)
If not, are
community courses in the process of gaining FETAC accreditation?
c)
If not, is
there an intention to apply for FETAC accreditation?
Targets should be set for the
FETAC accreditation of courses.
Groups and networks should set targets to
obtain accreditation of their courses and outline them in their area plan.
Qualifications of
Community Tutors
Community Tutors who are
on programmes are not availing of the in-service training offered by the City of Cork VEC.
Over the coming 5 years Community Education Co-ordinators
should encourage their tutors to take part in this training.
Discussions between
groups, networks and the Adult Tutor Training co-ordinator should take place in
order to plan how best to facilitate community tutors in availing of in-service
training.
Acquisition of Information
The data collected in the questionnaire does not provide
sufficient information to comment on how efficiently the resources allocated to
community education are being used.
For example, 8,000
teaching hours are provided to cater for 2,854 adults.
This means that
each learner receives approximately four hours tuition for the duration of the
teaching year ?
The information gathered does not allow an analysis of the real use of the
teaching resources provided.
From the data collected, it was
not possible to look at the following issues:
-
Child Care provision
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Profile of the participants.
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Accessibility of programmes
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Learners who transfer from one course to another either within the
community education centre or progression to other educational institutions.
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Participation of culturally diverse groups
A greater emphasis should be placed on the
acquisition of information from community education groups.
This acquisition should be two-fold:
Firstly, the questionnaires sent to community groups each year will be
redesigned in order to gather more appropriate information.
The questionnaire
will be designed so that it gathers information on:
1.
The gender
distribution of learners;
2.
The
nationality of learners;
3.
The
integration of non-national learners;
4.
The access
of learners with disability;
5.
The rate of
annual repeat of learners taking courses in the community ;
6.
The
progression of learners through the education system;
7.
Learners’
evaluation of courses.
Secondly, each community education class should
have an attendance sheet that records the learners name and address and
attendance.
These should be submitted for each course that has been offered.
On-Line Education Reports
To facilitate more frequent
statistics, community groups should have access to on-line questionnaire. These
questionnaires will be accessed by password, so that each individual group can
submit their information on-line in confidence. In addition, statistics that
are produced will be produced on line and groups will have access to these
statistics on
www.corkadulteducation.ie
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