A mobile film studio for disadvantaged young adults, football skills for the homeless and university lectures for older people are among the 18 projects which have today won Government funding, kicking off a £20m scheme that will see creative learning flourish across the country.
The projects are the first ‘Early Bird’ bids to receive funding under the Government’s £20m Transformation Fund to support informal adult learning – learning for pleasure, self-development and community development.
Each project has been allocated a share of £1m by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The projects will introduce a range of innovative adult learning initiatives and activities for the benefit of a diverse range of communities and individuals.
The Transformation Fund delivers on commitments made in The Learning Revolution White Paper, published earlier this year, which announced a new approach to improving people’s lives and prosperity though learning for pleasure.
Kevin Brennan, Minister for Further Education, Skills and Consumer Affairs, said:
“These new projects will help to transform the way adults engage with learning - be it through music, creative writing, or parent groups - at the same time as promoting new partnerships in local communities.
“Learning for pleasure is hugely important - contributing to health, building confidence and improving community cohesion. In the longer term, informal learning can also act as a stepping stone towards more formal qualifications and employment.”
BIS has also announced today that the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) has won the tender to manage the Transformation Fund and oversee the distribution of the remaining £19million grant fund.
Alan Tuckett, Chief Executive of NIACE, said:
“NIACE is proud to have the role of supporting the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills managing the Transformation Fund. We argued in our response to the Informal 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 it’s given the opportunity for blue-skies thinking and the money to put those ideas into practice.”
The Transformation Fund was set up to encourage new partnerships between public, private and community organisations and create informal learning activities which:
- encourage more and different people into informal learning, particularly people from disadvantaged groups;
- open up access to learning in new places, in new ways and at more flexible times;
support people to set up self-organised groups and learning clubs; - widen choice, by developing and sharing innovative content;
- build partnerships and strengthen the capacity of informal adult learning organisations;
- improve connections and progression between different kinds of learning; and
make better use of broadcasting and technology to stimulate and support learning.
The fund, available in 2009-10, adds to the £210m which the Government has already ring-fenced to support informal adult learning. The Government also invests £360m each year in museums and galleries, £10m in UK online centres in libraries and other community settings and £21.5m in union learning.
The Transformation Fund delivers on a pledge made in the Government’s The Learning Revolution White Paper, published in March 2009, which describes how Government and a multitude of partner organisations can work together to create a new movement for informal learning.