Report OL195 Taking training to local communities

People value skills for the self respect, peer respect and income that they bring. Despite this, motivation to acquire skills may appear low, especially in some urban and suburban areas. Resistance to training can arise from adverse attitudes to official programmes or institutions, or from poor self image, rather than from a lack of interest in self-development per se.

The report describes experience gained from four projects operating in housing estates in Bradford (the Thorpe Edge estate), Lewisham (the Downham estate), Sunderland (a mobile facility covering a number of areas) and Wandsworth (a library on the northern edge of the Doddington estate). Each was funded by the Employment Department for 15 months and set out to investigate and demonstrate new ways to encourage and help people to develop their skills. This publication is intended to help highlight problems and difficulties, as well as well as successful practices, in innovatory approaches to skill development.

The booklet is aimed primarily at organisations whose business is economic regeneration through the development of people. Thus Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs), Local Authorities and development corporations and agencies might use our experience to develop ideas of their own. It is unlikely that any of the four projects can or should be exactly replicated since local conditions will in part dictate what form a scheme takes, but between them they illustrate some pitfalls to be avoided and some of the opportunities that can be exploited.

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This page last updated 24 January 1999.