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David FuegiLearneast Project Manager

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Overall Objective

To increase and demonstrate the potential of public libraries to provide awareness, training and lifelong learning opportunities which impact on the recruitment and retention of specified target groups suffering discrimination and inequality in connection with the labour market.

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Achieved by Setting up a regional demonstration

project Providing ICT based learning

programmes aimed at specified target groups

Providing specially trained staff Setting up new working

partnerships Mainstreaming

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LearnEast Partnership

The project partners are: Essex (with co-ordinating role) Cambridgeshire Hertfordshire Peterborough Suffolk Peterborough Learning Centre Ltd. MDR Partners (project management)

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What is LearnEast about? (1)

LearnEast aims to show how libraries can uniquely fill a space in the national provision

Reach – libraries are everywhere Access – convenient hours Environment – neutral, non-threatening Community links Inclusive Infrastructure – People’s Network Learning tradition

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What is LearnEast about? (2)

So, we believe that libraries should be brought into mainstream practice and funding

BUT we recognise that we must show that libraries can:

Attract the target groups Train staff appropriately Demonstrate & account for outcomes Provide for ‘progression’ Build the right partnerships

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Innovation

Innovation in this project is: Focus on specific target groups Determination to make new local & regional

partnerships Demonstrating impact – particularly

employment outcomes LearnEast is the only public library EQUAL

project in the UK: only two (of more than 1300) in the whole of Europe

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Time and money

Cost is 3 million euros [£2m] 50% funded by ESF Match funding mainly staff labour Project runs from May 2002 to

August 2004 Will account for 400 ESF

beneficiaries

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Sub-Objectives (1)

To raise the profile of public libraries and to build strong local partnerships.

To provide a model for other public libraries. To utilise the reach of the library service to

contact and enthuse the target audience towards take up of learning opportunities

To build on existing work and contacts with the target groups and create new contacts by outreach work, i.e. sending trained staff out into the community to deliver awareness and taster sessions and explain the opportunities available.

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Sub-objectives (2)

To deliver in the libraries a range of learning activities, focusing mainly on basic skills and ICT skills, tailored towards further learning and improved employability.

To record and encourage progress by the learners. To offer, in parallel, information, advice and

guidance, referring as necessary to existing IAG partners.

To progress learners towards further training or employment by monitored referrals to Job Centres Plus or other education and training providers.

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Target Groups lone parents/carers with young children; travellers; returners to the labour market with skills needs

[especially workers over 50]; women returners; people in low skilled/low paid work with skills needs local communities with basic skills/ICT needs; rural and isolated communities; unemployed people with skills needs; people with physical and sensory disabilities; adults with learning disabilities; people with mental health problems; people from ethnic minorities with skills needs

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The Work (1)

In the UK, the Partnership will: train a selected group of new and

existing staff in the principles of EQUAL, and the needs of the target groups;

engage with the target groups - initially by ‘outreach’ work, by visiting community groups to make presentations, talk about learning and employment opportunities, and to demonstrate awareness and ‘taster’ sessions.

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The Work (2)

at community meetings, and through planned follow up, learners will be encouraged to visit local libraries, individually or in groups, where they will be assisted in the selection and use of a variety of learning programmes. In the main, the learning programmes will focus on basic skills and ICT and will be selected from existing offerings

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Benefits for customers

1. Trained staff to help and support2. An ‘outreach’ programme for staff to visit,

demonstrate and talk to community groups• Well equipped computer access points in libraries

– many are approved Learning Centres• Assisted ‘awareness sessions’• Access to learning programmes and resources• Information, advice and guidance on learning and

employment opportunities• LearnEast is free to approved users

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Transnational Work

1. Transnational partners are Abside (Italy) and Caribal-Edist (France)

2. Workshops have been held in each partner’s country

3. Cambridge workshop 4/5 Sept 20034. Presentations made at conferences in Portugal,

Moscow and Berlin5. One of 8 selected case studies for the Pulman

Poicy Conference6. Participation in SEIN study (social inclusion case

studies)

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Expected outcomes Successful engagement with the

target groups Recorded outcomes for 400

beneficiaries Sustainable ongoing relationships Formal evaluation A web-based ‘toolkit’ for other

library authorities Continuation of the service

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Importance of LearnEast for public libraries and for policymakers

‘Mainstreaming’ Making this kind of activity a normal

part of library service Moving it into national and regional

policy Earning wider recognition for public

libraries in ‘hard’ employment outcomes

Aim to win over policy makers and funders

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Evaluation plan

Strong emphasis on evaluation Contract let to external evaluation

specialist by restricted tender Aims to demonstrate impact on

partners and beneficiaries Uses interviews, questionnaires,

focus groups etc Will provide inputs to the “toolkit” Evaluation empowers and motivates

staff and gives them new skills

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Evaluation plan: selection of evaluators

Bidders needed to demonstrate: experience of ESF evaluation [experience of

ADAPT or EMPLOYMENT was especially welcome]

an in depth understanding of EQUAL a proven track record of work in the employment

or lifelong learning domain and, if possible, in the public library domain

experience of carrying out effective project management

Ability to work to tight deadlines.

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Evaluation plan: aims

•Meeting the formal evaluation requirements of Equal1.Demonstrating impact on beneficiaries using both hard and soft indicators 2.Demonstrating the establishment of strong local partnerships and3.Documenting these aspects of the project for both internal and external audiences.4.The internal audience is the DP and ESF;5.The external audience is the wider library profession through the “toolkit” on the web.

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Evaluate what?

•Impact on beneficiaries and on a sample of other “customers” of the services offered1.Impact on local partners. This includes forming a view on the partnership process and whether strong lasting partnerships were created in conformity with the project’s objectives. The views both of service deliverers [e.g. Connexions] and groups representing beneficiaries are required.2.Impact on staff who worked on the project.3.Approach to empowerment [formative].4.Approach to equal opportunities [formative and summative].

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Evaluation plan: how? Tools interviews, questionnaires, focus

groups etc Forms jointly designed to feed both

monitoring and evaluation Stakeholders/partners/ our own

staff/beneficiaries: baseline interviews and later interviews to assess impact

Focus groups with staff to assess training impact and with beneficiaries

Beneficiary monitoring forms and tracking questionnaires assess whether we reached the intended groups

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Evaluators' warning!

However, the ambition of the project could be an issue. The project is quite small in terms of numbers of people involved, beneficiaries and scale of activity – and yet the hopes for it in terms of integration into local partnerships and demonstration of a range of good practice methods and techniques are quite high. We will be interested to note the degree to which the management team are able to generate profile from this type of project.

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Evaluation plan: outputs?

•an evaluation plan as agreed by the DP; 1.interim deliverables as specified by the contract and the evaluation plan2.a formal, summative evaluation of the work undertaken. 3.quarterly progress reports and...

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Evaluation plan: outputs?

•Narrative report describing both methods and outcomes in a format suitable for publication on the web as part of the DP’s “toolkit” for other libraries, outlining problems encountered and overcome, and the reasons for inclusion or exclusion of particular methodologies;

1.Two chapters for the toolkit:2.outcomes of the Co-East Equal DPA and 3.a brief guide to using the most effective methods.

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Finally

•First annual report expected in the autumn1.Project is ambitious [and may therefore not totally succeed]2.Even failure or partial success can be valuable and instructive – EQUAL is meant to be experimental3.Copies of tender documents and evaluation plan and forms available for colleagues.4.Questions?