Open College Network Accreditation
After a few months of meetings and writing new policies, Adullam has become a recognised learning provider with the Open College Network.
What this means is that as an organisation we’re now able to develop, run and accredit nationally recognised qualifications in a number of
areas around independent living and employment skills.
At the moment, Liberty House is piloting a short programme around making choices and planning for goals which is linked in with the support
planning process at the project. The idea behind this is that, as well as developing and working through support plans, young people at the
project will also have the opportunity to get a nationally recognised qualification for their achievement which can help them move onto further
education or training or employment. There are also plans afoot to pilot short courses with residents around settling into a local community
and financial management.
The real beauty of OCN qualifications is that, so long as learning outcomes for units are met, you can deliver and assess the work in ways
that are appropriate to the client group and are inclusive and open to people who haven’t had the best experiences with more formal learning.
It’s a really exciting time to Liberty House as we work to move our focus into housing, support and learning as a whole package and we’re
hoping the added value this brings to the service is going to help win new business for Adullam in the future.
We’re also keen to look at running a pilot scheme or two in a couple of other projects, perhaps working with adults in a more long term
setting or within a floating support type environment so see if we can develop models of learning we can roll out nationally. If this is
something your project would be interested in or you’ve some independent living skills work you’re already doing that you’d like to get
accredited we’d love to hear from you. Adrian at Liberty House is taking the lead on the project with support and guidance from his line
manager Lisa and Kathryn from the SLT and he’d be happy to hear any ideas you had, or if you just wanted some more information on the scheme.
Adrian Thompson
Acting Senior Project Worker
