The value of community learning

Dominique Rose, Curriculum Leader Community Regeneration and MGL, Bolton College

At Bolton College we pride ourselves upon our highly diverse and inclusive culture. We are responsive in supporting and serving the wide and differing needs of our community as well as fostering a progressive work and learning environment informed by local and national priorities.

To enable access to education for all we deliver courses in the community and take education to the people! To break down the barriers to education we use a place based spokes approach. We deliver in churches, libraries, community centres, UCAN centres, Bolton Hospice and local primary schools. The learners see the college as a part of their community and don’t have to leave their safe space to re-engage in education.

We are fully committed to bridging the achievement gap and ensuring equity and access to equal opportunities for all learners within our college. The achievement rate for our widening participation learners was above the national average for widening participation. Last year all learners from ethically diverse backgrounds achieved above the national average. Our attendance rates in Community Regeneration are also consistently above 90%. This shows that our inclusive and contextualised curriculum is making a positive impact within our local communities.

We offer a range of community learning courses to meet the needs of our local communities and enhance community cohesion. We offer cultural cookery courses which include Moroccan, Indian, Lebanese, Mexican and Greek Cuisine cookery courses. During the Cost of Living Crisis, we’re offering Healthy & Tasty Meals on a Budget to support those struggling to make ends meet in the current socio- economic climate. We deliver Family Learning courses in local primary schools to help parents support their child’s wellbeing, English, Maths and digital skills.

Our most popular contextualized curriculum is British Culture. The course is designed to help new arrivals integrate into British society, enables learners to access local services and prepares them for future progression such as Community Interpreting and volunteering courses. The Community Interpreting courses offer an established progression route for ESOL and British Culture learners. Community Interpreting qualifications empower our learners to use their native languages as a career pathway and help others in the local community.

This curriculum has not been designed by ourselves, but co-designed with those in the community and key stake holders, listening to them and using their learner voice to provide a provision which is based around their needs and the needs of our stakeholders who have intelligence about their skills needs and the needs of hyper-localities.

We are incredibly proud of our inclusive approach which enables our communities to engage in education, gaining valuable skills to live a happier and more prosperous life.