Aim
The aim of the Learning Kitchen was to develop, test and promote lifelong learning interventions to support employment access and retention using ICT. It promoted access to ’first rung’ learning for disadvantaged groups [deprived communities, 50 plus, ethnic minorities, women, travelers, young people, and people with disabilities] through the identification of Learning Ambassadors and appropriate learning and support mechanisms. The projects were looking at innovative ways of involving disadvantaged people in learning and piloting new ways of working with adults who are not usually engaged in education and training.
Background
The Learning Kitchen is a partnership of organisations across the Midlands (Black Country) UK that are involved in lifelong learning. The Learning Kitchen Development Partnership represents strategic and grassroots organisations from across the Black Country that worked together to address the issues of lifelong learning and social exclusion in ICT.
Objectives
The key objectives were to:
- Engage groups who were underrepresented and underachieving in terms of qualification and in terms of using technology
- Work together with different groups within the black country to raise the aspirations, the educational involvement of specific groups.
Target Beneficiary group
The DP worked very closely with the Learning and Skills Council. It tried to use a range of innovative methods to engage hard to reach groups in learning such as sports, dancing and drama. History was used to get people to the library where they could prepare information they found interesting about their own history through the use of computers and the internet. They worked with disabled people in hospitals by taking them to a different environment away from the hospital. Each group was targeted with activities and approaches specific to their needs. Beneficiaries were trained to become Learning Ambassadors.
Main outcome
The 'Learning Kitchen' initiative helped more than 1,000 people from the age of sixteen upward who had missed out on more traditional routes into education.
