ALVO - Association of Lanarkshire Volunteer Organisations

Title : ALVO ways of making you learn

Rural learners in South Lanarkshire had historically faced geographical barriers to learning until the Association of Lanarkshire Volunteer Organisations (ALVO) came up with a plan.

 Rather than trying to transport learners from the smaller villages to the larger towns, ALVO decided to train six mobile community learning champions.

"We gave them laptops, trained them in IT and made sure they were up to date with learning opportunities currently available in the area, and where to find out about courses available in other areas," said ALVO training co-ordinator Fiona Hague

"The learning champions aren't experts, they're just members of the community, with a bit more training and knowledge than the learners themselves. The learners respect them because of that," she added.

The learning champions are also up to speed on the ILA (Individual Learning Account) Scotland scheme, and how their learners can use it.

"Although we're not actually ILA Scotland registered ourselves, we've referred a lot of learners on to providers that are. So far we've referred around 40 learners on from our head office in Lanark, and each of the learning champions will have done the same," Fiona said.

"It's a good scheme, and I think the best thing about it is that the learner has a choice in how to use the funding - either for one expensive course or for several cheaper courses, whatever's most relevant to them," she added.

"Covering 500 square miles of rural Scotland is no easy task. However, by thinking differently, we realised our best resources were already out there, our learning champions out in the community. We took a calculated risk, and it's worked really, really well."