By Cwti Green
Community Links has been running a community development course for several years. When the course units are successfully completed, students receive a National Open College Network Level 3 Progression Certificate: Community Development Skills.
The students come from a wide variety of cultural, social, and age backgrounds, and for many of them this is their first experience of an academic course since they left school. Students are encouraged to work together, sharing their knowledge, helping and supporting each other.
This year nine students took part in the research unit as part of the course. It is Community Links’ policy to make the research relevant to their wider work and also relevant to students’ experience. This year’s topic, “Supporting young people into work“ was an interesting and engaging one for the students to work on, given the recession. At all stages the students were consulted and supported in the work. The result was a well-written and thoughtful report with some very interesting conclusions. You can download a copy here.
Many of the students who complete the course find that this module is the most helpful of all the modules on the course, and of most use to them if they are going on to further academic qualifications, which many of them do. Staff have found that students benefit from the practical experience of designing and implementing the research with a qualified researcher from our in house research and policy team linksUK, and also from working in a group to write up the report.
The students spoke briefly about their experience here:
The great strength of this way of teaching and learning is its practicality and relevance to the lives of the students, and the confidence and skills they gain from working on a research project such as this.
Download this year’s report here and read about last year’s report “Cash-in-hand and working rights for young people” .
If you’re interested in either of our courses in ‘Welfare Benefits Advice’ and ‘Community Development Work’, which are accredited by National Open College Network, then please contact Doreen Jules-Lewis or Cwti Green on 020 7473 9667.
