Happy new year!
Happy New Year, everyone! 2021 may not have started as we would have wished, but our CLD family is filled with positivity, resilience and strength both for ourselves and the communities we work with. Let’s lean on each other when we need a boost and celebrate our successes to raise some smiles #BecauseOfCLD. We have a range of ways you can connect with your fellow CLD Standards Council Members:
- Twitter – @cldstandards
- Slack – email contact@cldstandardscouncil.org.uk for joining details
- I-develop – CPD discussion forum
- Virtual Meet-Ups – Join us for a new year hello on Tuesday 26 January 1-2pm. Register for the meet-up on Eventbrite.
Update to Scottish Government guidance for the community learning and development sector
Scottish Government have updated their guidance for the sector as of 5 January –
Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance for the community learning and development sector
Changes have been made to the Overview and Using this Guidance sections to reflect latest position.
Warm Welcome to Barbara Nelson
The CLDSC team are delighted to announce that Barbara Nelson from Education Scotland’s Scrutiny Team will be working alongside us over the coming months. Barbara is currently appointed as an HMIe and has a background in the Further Education Sector. She is a long-time supporter of the CLD sector and will be working with the working groups and the Professional Learning and Approvals Committees. Please say hello to her at various events over the coming weeks.
Growing the young CLD workforce dissertation
Congratulations to Approvals Committee member Ceri Hunter on achieving her Masters in Education in Community Learning & Development. Ceri’s dissertation researches the rising concern in the decrease in the number of young people (those under the age of 35) entering the Community Learning and Development (CLD) undergraduate degree and the significant number of those who intend to leave or retire from the profession in the next five year. This work-based research project also sought to identify the influencing factors, which lead to a career in CLD and whether that knowledge would lead to an understanding of how to grow the young CLD workforce in Scotland. View Ceri’s dissertation on i-develop.
Digital Strategy for Scotland
The Scottish Government and COSLA are updating the Digital Strategy for Scotland originally developed in 2017, and published a draft for consultation. View the CLD Standards Council’s response to the consultation.
Our response highlighted the opportunities for a digital strategy which supports lifelong learning and community development, and in particular, argued that the development of a common digital platform for the delivery of lifelong learning across all sectors and settings would have a major impact in improving inclusion in learning, digital upskilling and progression pathways. We emphasised that “leaving no-one behind” should be a guiding principle for the strategy.