Learning Partnership

The Learning Partnership encourages learning throughout life.

What is the Learning Partnership?

The Welwyn Hatfield Learning Partnership is one of ten across Hertfordshire, managed by the Hertfordshire Adult Learning Partnership and supported by the Learning and Skills Council.  The core purpose of the group is to promote access to and participation in lifelong learning by everyone over 19 who lives or works in Welwyn Hatfield.

Membership is voluntary and covers a wide range of statutory and voluntary/community groups, from education providers such as Oaklands College, the University of Hertfordshire and Extended Schools consortia, the libraries and museums services,  through to community groups such as the YMCA and homeless people’s accommodation and training provider The Foyer.  We aim to have representation from:

• Education and training providers – public, private and voluntary
• Employers
• Employment Service
• Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council – appropriate departments
•  Voluntary sector
• Ethnic minority groups
•  Faith groups
•  Disability groups
• Library service
• County-wide agencies esuch as the Careers Service, LSC, Adult Care Services, HAFLS, HALP, Health Authority, Community Development Agency and Connexions
• Primary Care Trust

We also link with other partnerships in Welwyn Hatfield, the county and the Eastern Region.

What does the Learning Partnership do?

The Partnership's objectives are to:

• Provide local opportunities for collaboration and exchange of information and good practice, and to avoid duplication of provision.
• Identify and address learning and personal development needs and skills gaps in the local community.
• Map local provision of training and education, including areas of expertise and potential.
• Draw up/ develop an annual local learning plan.
• Co-ordinate bids and lobby for equitable county funding for learning opportunities.
• Represent the views of the Welwyn Hatfield Learning Forum to outside bodies such as Hertfordshire Adult Learning Partnership (HALP), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the Local Strategic Partnership.
• Publicise and promote the benefits of lifelong learning in Welwyn Hatfield.
• Address diversity and equal opportunities for all learners e.g. those with learning disabilities and/or other disabilities, those from black and minority ethnic groups, older learners, those who are disengaged from formal learning/employment and those from deprived communities.

Recent successes have included organising Adult Learners’ Week in May 2007 with 306 learners accessing 28 different activities in community venues and a similarly successful Family Learning Week in October 2007.  The next major event for the Learning Partnership is the Adult Learners' Week in April, where we hope to enjoy similar success.

How to contact the Learning Partnership

Want to know more? Please contact Indira Biswas-Benbow (Learning Partnership Co-ordinator) on:

Tel: 01727 737532
Email:  indira.biswas-benbow@oaklands.ac.uk

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