Due credit for learning in the community

OVER THE PAST 15 years, much of the pioneering work in Irish education has been carried out by community-based women's groups. Frustrated by the barriers put in their way by formal education structures, they have employed their own teachers and set up their own courses, organised at places and times that fit with the women's other responsibilities.

The guiding principle of Dublin's highly successful KLEAR group was "no creche, no class". This cry has been taken up by many groups around the State who have simply taken the provision of courses into their own hands because our education system is incapable of meeting their needs.

The problem for these educational entrepreneurs is that their efforts go largely unrecognised by the State when their "graduates" try to make the jump from the community into the formal education system, or into employment, they face an uphill battle - because they lack formal accreditation for their skills.

Groups such as the national adult learning agency, AONTAS, are lobbying hard to put accreditation on the policy-makers' agenda. But even with the best will in the world, it will take time to work out an appropriate validation system. Meanwhile, students of community.based educational programmes remain in limbo.

One possible way out of the impasse is via the Belfast-based Accredited Development and Assessment Centre. This is an offshoot of the Open University, set up eight years ago to provide awards in the broad occupational area of training, development and management. Today, the centre offers accreditation from four sources: the OU itself, City and Guilds, the Royal Society of Arts and the Institute of Personnel Development.

The centre has already worked on accreditation with the Drogheda Resource Centre, and from the new year it will be making a bigger effort to market its services in the Republic.

"The range of awards we offer is constantly being updated as demand arises and new relevant qualifications become available," the centre's manager, Pat Shearer, says. "The awards system is based on the achievement of recognised standards of competence. We will look at a candidate's learning experience from any source - be that in the home or working with community groups - when we are evaluating an individual's achievements for accreditation purposes.

THE QUALIFICATIONS are offered at different levels, which reflect degrees of complexity. They differ from traditional qualifications insofar as they are not courses - there are no exams and no passes or fails - but a system whereby candidates can build up to a full qualification by achieving one unit at a time over an agreed period."

Examples of the types of people who could achieve accreditation through the centre would include those working in local learning situations (the community-learning facilitator award) or those currently delivering training and development programmes who do not have a formal qualification in this area (the core trainer award).

"Key skills" is another area where accreditation is offered. This would apply to individuals or groups who have covered courses in communications, problem solving information technology, the application of numbers and working with others. These awards have a strong practical focus and are based on what candidates are able to do rather than on how long they have been studying.

There is a cost involved in achieving these awards and this varies depending on the subject area. An information pack about the centre can be obtained from Pamela Riley (see panel for telephone number), while Pat Shearer is willing to take calls people keen to discuss how their work and learning experiences fit into the awards system.

"We like to help people to make an informed choice about which route would be best for them and to advise them about which level they should start at," Shearer says. "Then we would normally put the candidate in touch with one of our assessors, who can take things a step further."