Progress - Background and Aims

Note on Archived content: G:up managed the Progress project in the West Midlands region, a national training programme for CYP VCS staff, which ended on 31st March 2011.  This page and related pages have been archived and retained for reference for anybody who was involved in or wants to learn about the project.  G:up hopes that there may be further opportunities through extension funding and projects for the West Midlands and is looking out for any opportunities that could benefit and develop the sector.

Archived Content

Building capacity in the young people's voluntary and community sector workforce

Progress is the name of a project being delivered on behalf of CWDC's Young People's Workforce Reform Programme Board[1], by a partnership led by the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS). The purpose of Progress is to build workforce capacity by enhancing the skills and training of those working with young people in the voluntary and community sector.

The Young People's Workforce Reform Programme

A programme to enhance and develop the young people's workforce is being delivered by CWDC, in collaboration with national young people's workforce organisations[2]. The programme aims to develop a more skilled, confident workforce that works in an effective joined up way to deliver the best possible outcomes for young people. Overall it covers the statutory and private as well as voluntary and community sectors. For more information please visit http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/young-peoples-workforce.

Why was the programme introduced?

The young people's workforce has shown considerable commitment and versatility over the years, providing much needed services to young people and their families across England. Nevertheless, young people are facing greater and more complex challenges than ever before as they grow towards adulthood.

The programme was introduced in 2008 to develop a range of products that would offer further support to the workforce in the following areas:

• Disparities in training, qualifications and outcomes across the young people's workforce.
• Concerns over medium term recruitment, retention and job mobility.
• Voluntary and community sector training was not widely available and did not coordinate with statutory and private sector training.
• Integrated Youth Support Services leaders and managers required specific training to equip them for the challenges of their wider roles.
• Workforce data overall being patchy, inconsistent and unspecific.
• A workforce that would benefit from greater cohesion and overall sense of identity.

The projects now running to help overcome these issues are:

• Leadership and management training and development for 5,500 leaders and managers.
• Capacity building in the voluntary and community sector, including the provision of up to 25,000 training places through the Progress project.
• The development of a common platform of skills and competences to include:
• o A Skills Development Framework.
• o Apprenticeship frameworks for integrated youth support at levels 2 and 3.
• o A Foundation Degree framework for integrated youth support.
• o Funding integrated workforce development in nine areas.

Participation in the programme is entirely voluntary.  For more information please visit www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/young-peoples-workforce

About the Progress project

An estimated 70 per cent of all youth support work is undertaken by the voluntary and community sector. Whilst courses and training are available to equip frontline workers with skills to work effectively with other specialists, the sector's capacity to deliver, fund or enable training of frontline workers is uneven. There is a need to support the management capacity of workers in small organisations who simultaneously lead and deliver youth support services.

Research has identified the following priorities to support integrated working, covering both frontline delivery and organisational capacity-building:

Facilitating learning and development of young people.

• Safeguarding the health and welfare of young people.
• Maintaining health and safety in the workplace.
• Promoting access to information and support.
• Promoting equality and the valuing of diversity.

These priorities were highlighted through feasibility research with the voluntary and community sector.

The overall purpose of Progress is to give opportunities to build the capacity of the voluntary and community sector by offering 25,000 accredited training opportunities for volunteers and paid staff covering the above five priority training areas. Employers and leaders who choose to use the project should enhance the capacity of their organisation to develop their workforce.  Staff and volunteers who choose the training should improve their capacity to meet the needs of young people.  The training is accredited and can build towards qualifications at the discretion of learners.

How the training is being delivered

Training that is consistent and accessible to learners in England is being supplied by both local and national training providers who will have been trained to deliver it.

An accessible and appropriate curriculum for the training has been developed with the help of five national delivery partners who support those working with young people in the arts, in sport and physical recreation, within black and minority ethnic communities, young Muslim communities and those working with disabled children and their families.

Progress aims to work with 360 individual trainers, supporting them with best practice learning resources and further opportunities to gain new skills, experience and qualifications.  This will increase the number and capacity of trainers able to work with the sector beyond the programme funding period, which ends in March 2011.  NCVYS is also working with existing regional and local organisations to deliver training which meets regional and local needs.

Meeting the need

The Progress project is based on five principles.

1. Voluntary and community sector owned and led - the project builds on accredited Qualifications and Credits Framework (QCF) units and qualifications that have been developed and are being delivered by organisations within the sector. This should ensure that voluntary and community sector organisations can better participate in the project and are able to build capacity as they benefit from the investment and coordinated approach that this project provides.

2. Integrated across local, regional and national training providers - the project integrates training delivery, accreditation activity, and provider support:

• a. Regional and national networks will coordinate training delivery to ensure that all learners can access accredited opportunities;
• b. Working with awarding organisations and sector skills councils, the project provides support for organisations who wish to have their awards accredited;
• c. A national resource bank and support offer is accessible to all participating providers and individual learners, drawing on best practice tools developed by networks and organisations.

3. Flexible - by brokering the delivery of training locally and regionally, the project offers training in different ways and at times and places to suit potential learners. This approach will also enable organisations to tailor their own courses to reflect their individual organisational language and business objectives.

4. Based on a shared understanding of quality and outcomes - Progress provides opportunities for dialogue locally, regionally and nationally to agree learning outcomes for individual learners and quality standards for delivery. This is supported by coordinating the training of trainers who will ensure that quality and outcomes are consistent.

5. Sustainable - the approach to this project builds on the sector's existing infrastructure and strengthens it. This should ensure that the elements of coordination can be maintained beyond the programme funding period. NCVYS intends to maintain the delivery of training beyond the life of the project by developing a business strategy and advising the participating networks and organisations on income generation opportunities.

The Progress Project Partnership

The Progress partnership involves existing national and regional delivery partners and agents to ensure all voluntary and community staff and volunteers within the scope of the overall young people's workforce reform programme can benefit[3]. 

It is led by the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) in conjunction with YMCA George Williams College . 

NCVYS is the leading representative body for voluntary and community youth organisations working with young people in England. NCVYS works through its membership of over 170 networks of voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises.

YMCA George Williams College is a College of Further and Higher Education affiliated to a major voluntary and community youth organisation. It is a recognised centre of excellence in education and training for youth and community workers across the voluntary and statutory sectors. It plays a senior role in the delivery of the project alongside NCVYS, leading on the development and delivery of the training curriculum and related aspects.

National Delivery Partners

The five Progress national delivery partners are ENYAN, CCPR, Voice4Change, KIDS and Muslim Youth Skills. Their role is to advise the development and roll out of the training to ensure it is appropriate and accessible to their communities of interest.

Regional Delivery Agents

The Progress project also works through partners in the nine English regions to support and broker the local delivery of training and to advise the partnership to ensure the training programme meets the differences in regional need across the country. In the West Midlands: G:up is the regional contract holder in the West Midlands for the Progress project.

Key Progress Documents Attached on Main Page

• Units Database - regularly updated, this includes all the training units available from all participating awarding bodies, through Progress. 
• Trainer Information Sheet
• Schedule for LLDA (Local Learning Delivery Agreement) - detailed information of roles and responsibilities of training providers and of G:up as Regional Delivery Agent
• Example LLDA - between training provider and G:up
• Core Script - background and introduction to Progress

As of 25th October the RITS (the Register of Regulated Qualifications) went live - so NDAQ (National Database of Accredited Qualifications) has disappeared – which means the hyperlinks for each training unit in the Unit Database are currently not working.

We were aware of this change and will inform you when our links have been re-established with the new site. Some qualifications are still being loaded onto the new database - so please be aware it is by no means fully functional. 

In the meantime should you need to see the detail of any unit or qualification link in the database you will need to contact the relevant awarding organisation. If you have any questions about this please contact Elena at NCVYS on 07913 080 353.

How can I find out more?

For more info contact G:up on progress@bayc.org or 0121 460 5870.

Or

Contact NCVYS on 020 7843 6451, email progress@ncvys.org.uk  or visit www.ncvys.org.uk/progress.html

Or contact CWDC on 0300 1231033, email youthworkforce@cwdcouncil.org.uk or visit www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/young-peoples-workforce

1. The board comprises Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS), Department for Education and CWDC.

2. Partners include the Creative and Cultural Industries SSC, Lifelong Learning UK, the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, the National Youth Agency, SkillsActive, Skills for Health, Skills for Justice, the Training and Development Agency for Schools.

3. http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/young-peoples-workforce/who



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