Worklife Adaptability Partnership (WAP) DP | Lead Partner | Partners | | Adam Smith College | Glasgow Caledonian University
University of Strathclyde
Stirling Council
Workers Educational Association
Glasgow South West Regeneration Agency
Dumfries and Galloway College
South Lanarkshire Council
Dundee College
Napier University | Objectives
The overall focus of the Worklife Adaptability Partnership is to develop a more inclusive Scottish Workplace, which contributes to Social Justice and allows the SME base to operate more competitively in the European and World Market places. The Development Partnership’s objectives will be: - To address rural and urban regeneration by creating Smart Communities, increasing the drivers for economic growth, work life balance and skill levels in ICT
- To develop and disseminate good practice that will combat anticipated labour and skills shortages due to a numerically declining workforce specifically within the context of the demographic time bomb
- To develop tools to support new ideas and opportunities within the farming communities in order to affect a culture change to protect and maintain already fragile rural communities
- To encourage/promote companies to initiate innovative business practices i.e. remote/flexible working practices by researching implementing and disseminating examples of best practice as competitive advantage
- To research and pilot the take up of emerging Open Source Software (OSS) technologies and methodologies and there impact on working practices and business environments; benchmarking these results against existing practices
- To raise awareness, promote and provide advice and solutions for organisations to the merit of mobile and wireless technologies. Disseminate the effects on working practices and communities, both urban and rural
- To raise organisational awareness of and commitment to equality by transforming learning cultures via the development and piloting of a range of approaches with 40 SME’s within 4 geographical areas in Scotland
- To establish collaborative networks with emerging clusters (biotec/creative/cultural tourism) in order to create future sustainability
- To recommend positive actions that employers can take to reduce discrimination against employees from black and ethnic minority (BEM) groups and enhance career progression prospects.
Target Groups
Emplopyers and employees from private abs public sector Pilot Projects and Mainstreaming Outcomes The University of Strathclyde - Older Workers Learning (OWL) Project
The project aimed to pilot the creation of specially tailored support and training for older adults in employment (company managers and human resources), across Scotland, to improve skills and increase job retention. Six groups were piloted in the Glasgow area, totalling 57 beneficiaries and ranging between 5 and 14 beneficiaries per group.
In the South Lanarkshire area, four groups were piloted, with 45 beneficiaries participating ranging between 7 and 14. In addition, 9 companies registered on the programme. The OWL training is now part of the Strathclyde University’s curriculum of studies and mainstream funding has now been secured through the university to continue course delivery in Glasgow and Inverness. Discussions are in place with a number of commercial organisations that are interested in this field.
South Lanarkshire Council -Farming Families Project
This pilot aimed to create a sector specific, integrated development process, aimed at improving business management and adaptation to change. In particular the project worked with participants to develop innovative ways to tackle the challenges facing family farms and establish a template to build the skills, confidence, self esteem and morale of the personnel involved. This process of empowerment had the clear focus of improving the implementation of future strategies for both business and personal development. To ensure that the positive outcomes generated from this project would act as inspiration for others facing adaptation to a changing industry, two distinct streams of participant were recruited to form clearly identified ‘early adopter’ and ‘young farmer’ groups. The selection of these categories and the recruitment of participants had a clear objective of maximising the impact of the project for both the participants and their peers within the industry.
A successful awareness/introductory meeting resulted in significantly higher than expected demand for places on the programme and high profile for the project at the outset. As a result of the additional participants taking part in the programme; the number of action plans prepared increased to 25 and business reviews to 17. The training programme of 12 workshops/seminars, 2 study tours and a participative marketing project resulted in all participants developing alternative and/or additional skills. The training programme in combination with the business reviews resulted the establishment of a company limited by guarantee to progress collaborative marketing of red meat. At the conclusion of the Apprentice Marketing Challenge the group members agreed to amalgamate under the banner of Clyde Valley Farms Direct (www.clydevalleyfarmsdirect.co.uk). The new company is direct marketing beef and lamb to individual consumers through box schemes and to food service outlets both in boxes and as whole carcasses and has the opportunity to bid to supply South Lanarkshire Council’s ‘Local Food for Local Schools’ pilot project. Dundee College - Connect Project
This part of the workplan established collaborative networks with emerging clusters (biotec/creative/cultural tourism) in order to create future sustainability; establish collaborative cluster networks which will facilitate information exchange, identify and disseminate best practice and offer a unified cluster driven approach to problem solving, staff training and work place experience. The Bio Tech cluster proved to be the most successful of the three emerging clusters - a full project report is available. Ac Pilot exercises revealed the necessity for a multi-faceted approach to companies, and the critical identification of a key influential champion within the company. This could be the CEO or Human Resources Manager. It was demonstrated that the VLE provided both a learning tool for staff training and a mechanism for networking between companies as well as with the training or support provider. Its attraction was based on its accessibility from anywhere with an Internet connection, its 24-hour availability, the potential for online assessment and monitoring as well as facilitating student participation, support, communication and collaboration. Acknowledged benefits of the model are its cost effectiveness, the provision of high quality focused learning and its subsequent contribution to cluster sustainability and economic growth. The menu of elements within the model encouraged cluster SMEs not only to embrace lifelong learning, but also to recognise the value of self and shared help. The cluster model is providing a template for similar cluster support in other sectors locally, nationally and transnationally
Adam Smith College - Building Smarter Communities
Adam Smith College, working in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway, Napier University and Raploch piloted a series of ICT projects aimed at promoting the use of emerging mobile, broadband and wireless technologies for SMEs. The projects involved large private agencies such as BT and 02 as well as many SMEs throughout Scotland. There were 4 main streams to these activities: Open Source Scottish Open Source Centre used to trial setup of Asterisk phone system. Open Source Courses created and delivered, promoted in training planner. Open Source relationship built up with main Linux desktop distro. Open Source literature produced and handed out to SMEs. Future awareness sessions have been discussed with Open Source professional to deliver workshop half days in two main Open Source products. Local Authority development department attended Open Source event with other SMEs from around Fife. Building Smarter Communities (Mini Moli’s) Training of disabled people at Newport in Fife for care staff. Retraining Fire fighters with IT skills with interest from other Fire Authorities. Attended Employment Week in Brussels. Training SME staff in house to enhance staff skills Demonstrating in remote areas the benefits of Broadband technology Demonstrating to small business, SMEs, the use of the mini MOLI vehicle and the benefits of remote working. Demonstrating to STUC highlands and Islands the benefits of being able to train their workforce on site. Lifelong learning. Mobile Video & Associated Applications for SMEs Further training has taken place with Mines Rescue and is now being rolled out throughout the United Kingdom. A series of bit-sized learning podcasts has been developed to run on various mobile devices. Update training has undertaking with the hairdressers on the project. Remote Working Continued to explore various business pods that can be used to allow staff to work away from their office reducing travel time. Input into BT‘s white paper to be published in November regarding flexible/ home working for the micro community
Outcomes include mobile technology application pilots being mainstreamed across the UK by one participating company and an agreement signed with the TGWU (UNITE) to use wireless broadband technologies to deliver training across the union membership. The partnership established through Theme F has now been extended and the pilot interventions will be mainstreamed through both structural funds and lifelong learning applications. Technology transfer will also be mainstreamed with EU partners in Poland as part of their broadband implementation strategy. This future alliance was established via Equal Transnational dissemination events Mobile Technologies have been mainstreamed into Adam Smith college curriculum provision and the experience learnt using the various mobile devices for learning has now been incorporated into the business learning training that we undertake for the Business Gateway and a key achievement is that a pilot company involved in Action 2 have now adopted this technology into working practices across all their UK regions. Flexible Learning patterns using mini molis is now being used nationally by the Fire Services and Trade Union Learning reps are now using the mini molis to engage with their members, especially those in remote and hard to reach areas. Through the pilot work carried out in the Open Source programme, NOVELL has signed an agreement with Adam Smith College to further develop training for the SME community. Research Projects Glasgow Caledonian University - Black Minority Ethnic (BME) project
The Glasgow Caledonian University in partnership with the Royal Mail undertook applied research and positive actions to tackle direct and indirect racial discrimination in the work place and thereby, enhance employment opportunities and career progression for Black and ethnic minority groups in Scotland. This included: - Identifying positive actions that employers could implement to improve the retention and career progression of black and ethnic minority employees
- Mapping the barriers at the workplace to career progression
- Developing interventions to further understand the discrimination that black and ethnic minority employees face in employment
- Disseminating a case study of successful positive actions.
As a result of the pilot an Equality Forum has now been established with governmental and private agencies to develop further action research. The finalised BME research report findings have been used as the basis for an application submitted under the ESF Structural fund objective 3 priority 2.
The contact details of the Lead Partner are listed below: Lead Partner: Adam Smith College
Person to Contact: Leigh Berridge
Telephone: 01592 207709
Email: LeighBerridge@adamsmith.ac.uk
Website: www.equalscotland.co.uk |