Enterprising communities
Community Assets Fund
The Community Assets Fund set up by the Office of the Third Sector and delivered through the Big Lottery Fund, is a key investment in third sector development and the community empowerment agenda. We were commissioned by the Big Lottery Fund in 2008 to design and conduct a formative evaluation of the programme and projects across England. We have designed a series of research inputs to inform the evaluation including a review of applications and the bidding process, project baselining to help assess the impact of the programme and a series of workshops to capture the learning and experience of community groups as they go through the asset transfer process. More information on the design and approach can be found here.
Multiversity
We were commissioned by Tyne Metropolitan College and North Tyneside Council to develop their idea for a local 'multiversity' which brings together a range of FE and HE institutions to offer joint pathways to available jobs which require HE qualifications. The only significant growth area in access to Higher Education is through the provision of 'HE in FE' or in progression to HE from level 3 delivered at FE Colleges. This is important as it suggests that the best way of helping those in disadvantaged areas gain the skills and qualifications they need for higher paid and more sustainable jobs is to improve access to FE and sustain progress through to HE at the same site. The importance of this strengthens as we enter a recession with relatively long term skill development routes become more appealing.
Our work involved assessing the extent of likely student demand for a local HE centre in North Tyneside, forecasting the extent of likely employer demand for work based HE from the Multiversity and a projection of the future employment areas that could create demand for higher level skills.