LINKED WORK TRAINING TRUST –

COALFIELDS COMMUNITY CAPACITY AND RESEARCH PROJECT

 

Linked Work Training Trust (LWTT) secured funding for a new cohort of students from 4 Coalfields areas across Scotland..

LWTT provided training in community development work for the worker/student through providing work experience and full academic training as an integral part of the project.  A professional training programme with a fully flexible training and support package which meet their individual learning needs is at the heart of the programme and full academic support is provided through tutors based at LWTT and the University of Glasgow and a workplace support structure has been designed to meet the needs of the people returning to learning. 

The project aims to achieve multiple outcomes in relation to providing engagement and training opportunities and community based regeneration planning for residents of the participating communities. The students are creating a portrait of their area that will include information from the community plan, the regeneration outcome agreement, existing facilities, and services and identify any gaps that may exist. They will recruit 12 people in the communities who will form a reference group and this group will examine the portrait and work with services and groups to progress any initiatives identified from the portrait. This group will meet 3 to 4 times a year.   In this way the students will support multi-generational and community based regeneration as part of their development while the resources that they provide will be supplemented by the experience and knowledge of the LWTT lecturers.

There is also a research element to the project, LWTT will be monitoring and evaluating the work in the ex Coalields areas and preparing a toolkit to evidence the unique skills needed to engage in these communities. Evidence of the success of such approaches can be evidenced by the high level of success that LWTT has achieved to date.  LWTT has nearly 50 graduates from four successful cohorts supported.

 

The students have just successfully completed their first year and as part of that have produced detailed community profiles for each area:

New Cumnock Community Portrait
Tullibody Community Portrait
Dykehead Community Portrait
Benarty Community Portrait