Powys Basic Skills Signposting Brochure Launched

A new brochure designed to signpost basic skills services in Powys has been launched at a successful conference held in the county.

The brochure, which is available to organisations and service providers in
the county, was unveiled at the conference organised by Powys Community
Consortium for Education and Training (CCET) to celebrate the achievements
of a basic skills project.

Powys CCET has delivered the Powys project, which is due to end this month,
for post 16 education and training body ELWa over the past two-and-a-half
years and is keen that the good work continues in the county.

The project has developed a quality partnership approach to improving
literacy and numeracy skills, which has resulted in 46 people achieving City
and Guilds qualifications in adult learning support at Coleg Powys.

Organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors have joined
forces under the Powys CCET banner to set up a network of people within the
county who are qualified to deliver and support those who would like to
brush up on their reading, writing and numeracy skills.

This infrastructure, backed by learning programmes, ensures quality
provision and provides an opportunity for people to access support from
various organisations.

"The signposting brochure is designed to inform organisations throughout
Powys where they can access the basic skills services they need," said Hazel
Wilson, Powys CCET project manager. "All the partner organisations are
listed together with the basic skills services they provide.

"If one organisation is unable to help, they will be able to refer an
enquiry to another within the project."

The conference was attended by 56 delegates from a variety of organisations
interested in basic skills provision. Speakers were The Basic Skills
Agency's executive director Tony Schiavone and development officer Sheila
O'Brien, Coleg Powys principal John Stephenson, Basic Skills Programme
co-ordinator for schools Liz Hinkley, Powys County Council's language and
play co-ordinator Anne Owen and ELWa's Mid Wales Regional Director Robin
Beckmann.

"The project focus was on capacity building and it has been successful in
achieving both the specific targets and some broader outcomes such as
awareness raising and exploiting the opportunities presented by
collaborative working," said Mr Beckmann.

"Clearly the focus now needs to change and move from capacity building to
mainstream delivery, which ELWa already funds. We are looking forward to
working with 'team Powys' to look at how the momentum and goodwill that the
project has generated can be taken forward. "

Mrs Wilson said it was a very positive conference with everybody keen to see
basic skills provision continue to develop within Powys.

Launching the new basic skills signposting brochure are Powys CCET project manager Hazel Wilson and Powys CCET chairman Brian Dunlop with The Basic Skills Agency's development officer Sheila O'Brien, Powys County Council's head of lifelong learning Mike Westhorpe, Anne Evans of Coleg Powys and Richard Davies of Powys Association for Voluntary Organisations.

For more information please contact Jacqui O'Donnell, ELWa Wales Marketing
Manager, on 01686 622494, Hazel Wilson, Powys CCET project manager, on 0845
4086 295.