COVID-19 guidance for the Community Learning & Development sector
The updated guidance can be found on the Scottish Government website.
The guidance will take effect from 26 April and there is also an intention to review numbers for the lower levels in early May taking into account the course of the pandemic.
CLD, COVID-19 and leadership – next sessions
There’s still time to sign up for the next sessions. These are available for all CLDSC Members aiming to encourage you to pause, reflect and plan the next steps in your personal and professional CLD journey.
Pause and Reflect Thurs 22nd April 2021 4pm – 6pm Book Pause and Reflect session
Care and Wellbeing Thurs 13th May 2021 4pm – 6pm Book Care and Wellbeing session
Next Steps Thurs 20th May 2021 4pm – 6pm Book Next Steps session
Virtual Meet Up – Case Studies & Reflective Practice
The next members’ meet-up will be from 1-2pm on Tuesday 27th April. This meet-up will allow us to spend some time thinking about some of the key aspects of reflective practice, particularly around evidencing the impact of our work through the use of case studies. You can sign up for the Meet-up on Eventbrite.
CLD Plan Webinars
National partners are collaborating to offer a series of webinars focussed on tools and resources available to complement CLD planning processes.
The webinars may be of interest to local authority officers, teams, and partners involved in producing CLD plans locally, and will commence in early May. Further information and registration details can be found on the Education Scotland CLD blog.
Project funding for work with refugees – information session for CLDSC members
Tuesday 4th May, 4pm to 5.30pm
£2.8 million is available from the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project for new projects spreading documented good practices and supporting innovation related to the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy. A number of the funding topics have a clear CLD focus, relating particularly to ESOL and to community development. There is scope to apply for grants from below £5,000 up to £115,000. Organisations including Community Groups, Local Authorities, and Social Enterprises can apply. The closing date for applications is 22nd May; for more information and details of how to apply, see the Scottish Government website.
Sign up for an information session with Jewels Lang, Communities Manager at the Scottish Refugee Council, on Tuesday 4th May, 4pm to 5.30pm. Register on Eventbrite.
Local Democracy Lab Scotland
Friday 30 April 2021, 2-5pm
Do you want to discuss the condition of democracy in Scotland through the lens of present challenges?
Scotland Local Democracy Lab is an online public deliberation event which gathers people across Scotland to discuss their trust in democracy in the time of Covid-19 pandemic. It is organised as a part of the Populism and Civic Engagement (PaCE) project, an EU-funded research and innovation programme, aiming to understand and address the negative tendencies associated with populism politics.
You are invited you to share your opinion about the condition of democracy and your trust in decisions made by public authorities. This knowledge will feed in the PaCE research findings and the outcomes will be widely disseminated among policymakers and researchers.
Everyone is encouraged to participate, including minorities, people with a migration background, of different educational and professional backgrounds. You are welcome to join if you:
• are at least 16 years old
• live in Scotland
• enjoy sharing ideas and discussing them with others
You can register here.
National Numeracy Day 2021- Are you a numbers champion?
National Numeracy Day will take place on 19th May 2021. Education Scotland and the Scottish Government will again participate as lead supporters of the campaign in the hope of encouraging all adults in Scotland to brush up on their numbers skills.
This year will celebrate numbers by hosting a virtual festival, packed full of practical advice from celebrities and experts, inspirational stories from real-life learners and a host of free online events and resources. The festival will focus on three key themes; supporting children’s numeracy, managing your money and numeracy for work.
Get involved!
When you sign up to be a National Numeracy Day Champion you will receive free, fun materials and resources to use and share, and join over 1,300 other Champions helping the nation to feel good about numbers. All participants will have access to an online number skills checker called ‘The Challenge’ that will help signpost to resources to improve number skills.
To be a champion you could run an online event, you could circulate resources to learners/parents or you could just simply promote the campaign via social media to your partners and stakeholders.
Since 2018, Scotland has had record numbers of community organisations, adult learning providers, schools and businesses signing up to be numeracy champions.
Find out more and sign up by visiting the National Numeracy website.
Adult Learning Entry Level Qualification survey
Learning Link Scotland, West College Scotland and Working 4U, West Dunbartonshire Council are currently developing a new entry level qualification for those working in or thinking about working in adult learning. The qualification would be at SCQF level 6, have three units and take 108 hours to complete.
They are aiming to find out what the interest would be in such a qualification and have created a very short survey to help collate that interest. Please click here to access the survey which should be completed by Friday 30th April if possible.
Scottish Charity Awards
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is calling for charities and individuals across the country to apply for its annual charity awards.
Now in its 15th year, the Scottish Charity Awards highlight the best, most innovative and effective charity organisations and individuals from the past year, and celebrate those who make a difference in our communities.
Over the last 12 months the voluntary sector has never been more needed and has shown strength and resilience in supporting our communities against the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The charity awards are designed to celebrate the best of the voluntary sector. The award categories are Employee of the Year, Trustee of the Year, Community Action, Campaign of the Year, Charity of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Digital Citizens, Pioneering Project and Climate Conscious; with the winners to be decided by a panel of judges and announced on Friday 1 October.
CLD Standards Council is proud to sponsor the Community Action Award. Please nominate CLD practice in the voluntary sector across all categories. Nominations close 5pm Friday 14 May 2021.
CLD Talks Podcast
This week’s CLD Talks podcast features John Loughton, CEO of global leadership company Dare2Lead and the Founder of Scran Academy. John talks through his journey from running his first campaign when he was 11, becoming the Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, extra-curricular activities, starting off Dare2Lead and the outstanding work done by Scran Academy over the last year.
This is the 10th episode and the final episode of Season 1! You can catch up on everything at this link.
HM Inspector of Education vacancies
Education Scotland are currently seeking applications for HM Inspector of Education posts with a background in:
• Tertiary education (including colleges and work-based learning)
• Community Learning and Development (CLD).
Full application details are on the work for Scotland website. Applications close 10 May 2021.
SDS Careers Scotland Survey
Skills Development Scotland is working with partners on a collaborative, evidence-based review of all careers services in Scotland.
The review will capture and respond to the views, needs and experiences of young people, parents, employers, teachers as well as experts in further and higher education. It aims to ensure careers services are fit for purpose and future proofed and to provide recommendations for the implementation of all age career services across Scotland in line with Scotland’s Careers Strategy – Moving Forward report.
They are asking all organisations in Scotland that provide any career services to young people to complete a survey to find out about your organisation, the services you provide and your funding and evaluation.