Rock the Walls
York Libraries, York Museums Trust, National Railway Museum, York College
Looking at displays at York Castle Museum
©MLA Yorkshire
Rock the Walls aimed to use the fantastic resources available in Museums and Libraries to stimulate young adults learning of basic skills. The idea was to run a 12 week training programme for a group of young adults with links to the Skills for Life Curriculum. The learners would study the three venues and then work with a digital artist to use their knowledge to produce promotional materials such as postcards.
A scheme of work for the course was developed by a tutor from York College, who then recruited 6 learners from local training providers. The resources produced, including a video recording and questionnaires will be collated and it is planned that this will be the basis of future projects.
It has been a very challenging project with lots of lessons learnt, however by the end of the project positive changes can be seen in all the learners, the majority of whom have developed new skills particularly in computer design as well as being very impressed with what they have seen in the museums and libraries.
Learner's comment at the start of the course:
"What has this got to do with me? I want to be a nail technician."
Same learner's comment at the end of the course:
"I’m going to bring my younger brother this is a great place to visit!"
National Railway Museum staff comment:
"To be a young person today is a very different experience to that of even a few years ago and in order to attract today’s young people to our services we have to treat them with just as much respect as any other age group."
Get more details about this case study: Rock the Walls evaluation report.doc [874.0kb]
Next case study: Skills for Life through Family History