College secures £125,000 funding to run free courses

City College Plymouth has been awarded £125,000 of the Government’s new Transformation Fund for informal adult learning, to run a project called C-Change.

The project is to provide informal learning opportunities for people aged 19 and over in partnership with 18 organisations, aimed particularly at groups under-represented in the learning community, in a variety of venues across Plymouth. Partners include The Theatre Royal, Diggin’It, Granby Island, North Prospect Community Centre, ODILS and Shekinah Mission to name but a few. Free courses such as art classes, card making, photography, dads and lads construction, writing for the stage, soft play, table decorating and history of Plymouth courses are all on offer throughout the city.

Fiona Horrell, Project Manager at City College Plymouth who put the initial bid together said: “City College Plymouth is delighted to receive this funding - one in ten applications to the funding body, NIACE were successful, and to receive as much as £125,000 is outstanding. This is a flagship project Plymouth can really be proud about. To have 18 partners from around the city working together to offer free exciting, innovative and inspiring learning opportunities, is truly fantastic.”

Fiona continued: “Our funding only continues to the end of March 2010, so we don’t have long - but we hope that this will be a start of a wave of free informal learning opportunities for adults across the city.”

Claire Robinson, Transformation Fund Project Manager on behalf of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), said: “NIACE is very happy to be supporting the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the management of the Transformation Fund to fulfil the recommendations of the Government’s Learning Revolution for informal adult learning.”

She continued, “The hundreds of bids we have received have displayed high standards of quality, highlighting the vast breadth of projects that are out there with an adult learning focus. The innovative nature of the winning projects is sure to transform the way adults learn, improving well-being and building confidence along the way. The projects have the potential to not only help individuals, but to benefit communities as well.”