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The Post-16 Citizenship Support Programme is pleased to offer fully funded customised, in house training which responds directly to the needs of organisations requiring bespoke support to set up, or make improvements to, citizenship provision.
Customised training is designed to improve the quality and range of your citizenship provision. Our focus will be to equip your staff, at all levels, with the knowledge and skills to organise and deliver effective active citizenship learning.
Citizenship enables young people to learn about their rights and responsibilities, and how society works. It also develops knowledge and understanding of topical, often controversial, social, political, environmental and economic issues. It encourages learners to express their views and participate in decision-making: to ‘have a voice’ in democratic processes. Citizenship learning is active, reflective, learner-led and community-focused. It prompts and enables learners to take action on issues of concern to themselves and others, and to make a difference in their local and wider communities.
Select from eight flexible training themes which can be tailored to meet your requirements:
1. Taking stock of citizenship provision: training needs analysis
This session will help organisations identify and evaluate any existing citizenship activity they may already offer to students – whether or not it is labelled as such. It will help you to clarify possible opportunities for citizenship learning within your organisation, and associated training needs. The session will involve interviews with a range of staff and students to gather views on citizenship and build up a picture of the support and development staff will need in order to take citizenship provision forward in an effective way.
2. Getting started with post-16 citizenship
Through this training session you will get to grips with the above definition and key principles of post-16 citizenship, consider its benefits for all groups of learners and their organisations, and discover a variety of possible models and approaches to setting up and organising your own citizenship activities and programmes. It will also examine the relevance of citizenship for other institutional priorities and government initiatives, including the Learner involvement strategy, Community cohesion and Personal, learning and thinking skills.
In common with the other five themes offered here, this session will: model an active learning approach that is central to effective citizenship provision; offer an opportunity to find out about best practice examples from other organisations; and allow you to access, free, additional staff development and teaching and learning resources.
3. Citizenship and controversial issues
Controversial issues are those about which individuals and groups disagree and hold strong opinions, issues that can divide society and arouse strong feelings and/or deal with fundamental questions of value and belief – for example, war, immigration, abortion, gay rights. While some teachers may feel anxious about introducing them, such social and political issues are central to citizenship and learning to manage differences of opinion in an acceptable way in a democratic society is one main aim of citizenship education. This session offers the opportunity to consider further the nature of ‘controversial issues’ in the context of your own organisation and to work on strategies and techniques for managing controversy among groups of learners.
4. Citizenship and learner voice
The importance of hearing and actively listening to the learner voice has become a central part of post-16 education and training where it has a strong alignment with citizenship education. Learner voice and representation supports the promotion of wider citizenship learning objectives for an ethos of democratic participation while, in turn, good active citizenship learning can greatly enhance the effectiveness of learner voice within an organisation. This session will allow you to explore current understandings of 'the learner voice', and its development in the context of the LSC’s requirement that all FE providers put in place a learner involvement strategy. It will also allow you to consider progress with a learner involvement strategy in your own organisation, and the part that citizenship provision can play in developing this successfully.
5. Diversity community cohesion and citizenship
Community cohesion is important within learning organisations, in the local areas they serve, in our society as a whole and globally. The promotion of community cohesion, which has become an increasingly significant government priority in recent years, can be linked closely with citizenship education. This session will enable you to explore some of the issues surrounding community cohesion in the current social and political climate – and very much in the context of the circumstances and priorities of your own organisation. There will be a particular focus on the role that citizenship provision can have in the development of effective strategies for cohesion, both for your organisation as a whole, and in relation to work with specific groups of learners.
Training sessions related to this theme could focus in particular on:
In relation to the latter theme we are very pleased to work in partnership with Leap Confronting Conflict.
Leap are offering an introductory session for staff exploring neighbourhood safety and issues related to gangs and knife crime. You will gain an overview of Leap’s techniques and methodologies for engaging young people on the subject of gangs, including territorialism, status, revenge, safety and enemies. The session includes:
6. Citizenship learning through Diplomas
The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) makes it clear that Diploma learning should contribute to the overall curriculum aim for young people to become ‘responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society’. This session will help you to plan for the inclusion of citizenship activity in the line(s) of learning offered in your organisation. The main focus will be on opportunities for citizenship within principal learning, although GCSE, AS and A level Citizenship qualifications can form part of Additional and Specialist Learning. Within Personal, learning and thinking skills, the ‘effective participator’ category involves the same skills as active citizenship, while the Extended project can be chosen to develop citizenship skills with the opportunities it provides for the development of ideas, products and services that benefit the local community over time.
7. GCSE, AS and A level Citizenship Studies
In post-16 education and training the diverse needs of learners has led to a variety of approaches to citizenship. Qualifications often feature in these as they recognise and accredit achievement; add value to citizenship learning; help provide a coherent programme of study with a structure and standards which are independently validated; offer a clear progression route in citizenship learning from key stage 4 to different levels of post-16 provision; and bring funding to the institution providing the course. Strong links can also be made with student representative structures and other processes to promote ‘learner voice’ and with initiatives to foster community involvement and cohesion. The most effective teaching and learning strategies for citizenship education involve active approaches with learners – in the classroom and beyond – involved in working collaboratively on real social and political issues.
The new GCSE and GCE AS and A level qualifications all offer opportunities for active learning and active citizenship – and strategies for creating these opportunities will be one main focus in this training session. Participants will get the chance to: be clear about what citizenship is and what it is not; examine the benefits of citizenship education; learned about the new GCSE and/or AS/A level qualifications in Citizenship Studies; examine learning materials from the Post-16 Citizenship Support Programme and how to adapt them for GCSE/AS/A level work; experience active learning techniques that could be used within these programmes.
8. Citizenship through Entry Level Programmes (including those for students who have learning difficulties)
Most post-16 citizenship qualifications and training materials are designed for learners at Entry Level 2 and above. This training theme is designed as a response to demand for support with citizenship learning for learners at Entry Level 1 of the Foundation Learning Tier, which includes pre entry levels. Many (but not all) of these students have learning difficulties, and most will require methods that do not rely on literacy. Where citizenship exists in provision for learners who have learning difficulties, it is often focussed on Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) issues and on community involvement, so the intention is to support providers to consider ways of moving from the personal to the public, social and political issues of citizenship, and to add the dimensions of action and reflection.
However, it is acknowledged that many learners will find these skills difficult, so the training will consider a continuum of learning – from personal to social and political issues - so that individuals can work in a purposeful way but at an appropriate level. While much of this provision is likely to be delivered in tutorial and Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) programmes, this session could prepare staff to integrate citizenship within other taught courses. It could also target enrichment programmes or out-of-hours activities - with residential specialist colleges particularly well placed to do this. In this context, participants in the training may include Learning Support Assistants, residential care staff and a wide range of teachers delivering a variety of subjects including vocational and Skills for Life. They may or may not be LD specialists. The focus will be on how citizenship learning can apply to particular groups of learners and contexts.
You will have the opportunity to receive dedicated training and support for staff in-house which will be delivered by experienced consultants with extensive knowledge of post-16 citizenship education. Organisations may, in the first instance, request up to three training sessions (in the period to 31 March 2010) - inclusive of a ‘Taking stock’ consultancy meeting if required.
These can be tailored to the needs of your own organisation. Whether or not you choose option 1 above (full training needs analysis) we will always arrange a full discussion with you in good time prior to the training to ensure the session meets your objectives as fully as possible. The training sessions will be structured and delivered through a range of activities and discussions on days and at times which are suitable for you.
To apply for customised training, please download the application form and send the completed form to citizenshiptraining@lsnlearning.org.uk. Please note we will normally need a minimum of four weeks notice to process an application.
For further information or enquiries relating to citizenship customised training please email citizenshiptraining@lsnlearning.org.uk or telephone 020 7492 5252.
If you have a training session at your organisation scheduled, you may, as part of a blended learning approach to your citizenship training, make use of the additional learning materials (Microsoft Word document, 47Kb) we have developed which aim to help prepare you for the training session ahead and gain maximum benefit from it. The materials may also be used as part of your reflection and follow up work after a session.
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You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/241693.
