Engaging men in learning through local Learning Centres
This project aimed to encourage men in particular to return to learning in an informal, non-threatening environment. The Executive Group commissioned this project following the recommendations of the ‘Learning for All’ report (McGoldrick, October 2005 www.sfc.ac.uk), which stated that men were under-represented in higher education. The Scottish Funding Council has found that women are 25% more likely to enter HE in Scotland than men and that this gap appears to be increasing. In addition, school performance tables demonstrate that girls are out-performing boys at all levels of attainment in schools. The North Forum’s Executive Group agreed that it was important to begin to explore this problem further and to begin the process of addressing it on a regional basis.
It did this by working with the network of community learning centres that exists throughout the North Forum area. All of the learning centres in the area were invited to bid for funding to set up innovative courses to address the needs of men in their specific communities. The invitation to bid made it clear that all courses should include learning skills support and information about the opportunities available to people to pursue their education, should they wish. In the first phase of the project, bids were received from a wide range of learning centres, all within the Moray and Highlands and Islands area, and the project funded a range of innovative courses in nine learning centres. The report from the first phase of the project can be read below:
The Executive Group agreed to build on the success of the first phase of this project and commissioned a second phase to run in the academic year 2007/08. It was recognised that some groundwork needed be done in the North East, because no bids had been received from learning centres in this area for the first phase, and so the Executive Group commissioned a short life scoping study to try to remedy this situation. The second phase was more representative of the whole geographical area of the North Forum, with some learning centres in the North East participating.
The overall purpose of the project’s second phase was to increase the number of men engaging in higher education and to identify, develop and disseminate good practice in encouraging men to engage with learning through the learning centre network. Individual learning centres used their local knowledge and experience to develop projects that would suit the needs of men in their own communities. The projects were seen as the first stage in engaging the men; progression routes were then introduced at appropriate points within the activities. Lessons learned from phase one of the project were taken into account during the development, marketing and delivery of the sessions.
The report from the second phase of the project can be read below:
Caitriona Maciver, North Forum Manager
Castle House, Fairways Business Park, Castle Heather, Inverness, IV2 6AA
Tel: 01463 701010 email: c.maciver@abdn.ac.uk
