The LSIS  Leadership  Toolkits are now accessible for free to support LSIS in reaching and impacting as many as possible across the sector.

The  Leadership Toolkits  are online, interactive resources tailored to meet the needs of managers and leaders within three key sectors:

• Adult and Community Learning

• Work-based Learning (BETT Award Winner 2009)

• Independent Specialist Colleges

They help leaders to address a range of issues, such as preparing for inspection, keeping up to date with policy and funding issues, strategic planning and focusing staff development for organisational improvement.

The new reflective log and notepad functions allow for team members to record evidence of their learning, which can contribute towards their 30 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

“The feedback we have received from providers has been overwhelmingly positive,” said David Collins, “at LSIS we believe anything which helps drive up standards in teaching and learning across further education should be made available to all.”

LSIS is hoping free access to these resources will encourage more managers and aspiring managers to take advantage of the tools available to them for personal as well as organisational development.

To sign up for your free access:
www.lsis.org.uk/leadershiplearning – self registration is now available.

In addition – new online resources are being added regularly to www.leadershiplearning.org.uk beginning with Safeguarding this month.

The Adult Education sector faces particular challenges in exploiting the potential of technology in teaching and learning. This is largely due to the part time nature of the teaching staff, dispersed centres and shorter courses.

To meet these challenges ACL providers in London are in the process of drafting a London-wide VLE strategy for the sector. This will include learner entitlement to on-line resources, express organisational commitment to the use of modern teaching practice and materials, and requests that publicly funded learning providers share their digital resources.

The strategy is in the draft stage at the moment and will soon be available for consultation. It will then be sent to each of the 39 London based adult education providers for consideration in the autumn.

For further information contact Martin Sepion e-learning adviser for Adult and Community Learning at m.sepion@rsc-london.ac.uk

Harrow’s Adult Community and Family Learning Service has adopted a whole organisation approach to accessibility. Tutors and staff follow a development programme that gives them the confidence, knowledge and access to advice to enable them to support all learners. “Accessibility is incredibly important to us as an organisation,” says Harrow’s Adult and Community Learning Programme Development Officer, Karen Bhamra,

“It has helped shape who we are, the type of employer we are and the models of disability that we use to deliver our services.”

An important part of making Harrow’s accessible policy happen is the provision of online resources accessible to both learners and tutors. Read more about Harrow’s approach and look at some of their online resources in the latest RSC London case study for the Excellence Gateway.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=207113&c=casestudies

The Harrow Adult Community and Family Learning Service uses the Monterpoint management information system (MIS) and takes data from this to Arcview, a geographical information system (GIS). This enables some very sophisticated reporting for a small adult and community learning service. These reports enable Harrow Council and the Harrow Personal and Community Development Learning (PCDL) Partnership to be much more responsive to learners’ needs.

Read this RSC London case study produced on behalf of the Excellence Gateway

With more and more providers chasing fewer funds, the art of writing a successful funding grant application has not been more critical. To help increase the success rate of applications from the ACL and WBL sectors, RSC London is to repeat last year’s popular Bid Writing Workshop to coincide with this year’s funding rounds. It will be an all day event on the 22^nd May at a prime location in central London.

This workshop will be of particular interest to all Directors, Managers or other staff responsible for writing bid application. Delegates will be shown how to devise and express innovative project ideas, understand the sort of things funders expect to read in a successful funding bid and avoid common mistakes in completing applications forms.

The workshop will be led by Terry Loane, a presenter with the background and years of experience that places him in an ideal position to help guide providers make that all important successful bid application.

Drew Burn’s view is that improving ‘back office’ systems has given Richmond Adult Community College (RACC) the ability to respond positively to a changing landscape for adult learning and a more difficult financial climate. Read how RACC has successfully driven down transaction costs and improved the learner experience in this recently published case study on the Excellence Gateway.

RACC Case Study