Working in Partnership
Learners at the National Railway Museum in York ©YMLAC
Developing a partnership between a Skills for Life practitioner and one or more museum, library or archive (mla) will result in a project that meets the needs of Skills for Life learners while utilising the mla resources most effectively.
How do partnerships work?
As with any partnership, both partners must be committed to the project and understand how they will benefit from the work they put in. There are many ways that an mla/Skills for Life partnership can work. For example:
- Leeds Library, Leeds Art Gallery and Leeds Learning Partnership produced a joint literacy and ESOL resource pack for tutors and learners to use with groups visiting the library and art gallery. A tutor was recruited on a freelance basis to write the resource materials. Staff from the library and art gallery spent time with the tutor going through the resources available at their organisations. A steering group made up of representatives of all partners monitored the progress of the pack. Leeds Learning Partnership promoted the resource pack to tutors and organised for tutors to bring their groups to the library and art gallery to pilot the pack.
- Clifton Park Museum ran an Archaeology and Basic Skills course over the summer in partnership with Rother Valley College. Museum staff developed and ran the archaeology based activities, provided transport to the archaeological site and all necessary equipment and expertise for the students to take part in the excavation. Rother Valley College provided publicity for the course, and dealt with registering learners on the course, including screening them to ensure they had literacy skills below level 2. The College also provided rooms for the classroom sessions and a tutor to accompany the group to all sessions and assist with the literacy based activities.
- In Creative Writing in the Library, Kirklees library service and Dewsbury College delivered a creative writing class that was based in the library. Dewsbury library was used as the venue for the class, as an inspiring environment, which was seen by the learners as less intimidating than going into the college. Dewsbury College recruited the learners, and a tutor from the college taught the group. Staff from the library advised on the use of library resources during the sessions, and books from the library were used extensively by the group as a starting point for different types of creative writing, which was then typed up using the library computers.
In each of these examples, the mla and Skills for Life partners contributed their own expertise to a successful project. For more information of the above case studies, visit the links on the left.
Making Partnerships
The Open Doors Network is run by MLA Yorkshire and brings together mla and Skills for Life practitioners to share best practice and work in partnership. The network is a good starting point to meet others working in mla and Skills for Life in Yorkshire. For more information, or to join the Open Doors Network, go to the Open Doors Network page on this site.
Skillsforlifenetwork.com is the key website for Skills for Life practitioners in Yorkshire. Its forum can be a good place to make information requests and find partners for projects.