LSIS Stepping Up To Sustainability Fund
01 09 2010

Magnified Learning is delighted to be working on a new sustainable development assignment for the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).

Ninety-nine bids were received, from which eighteen further education providers - including FE colleges and adult learning and third sector providers - have been selected to participate.  Each will receive up to £25K towards action research projects to demonstrably build the sector’s capacity for SD.

Neil Ridley

Following this month’s launch at the Royal Society, we are delighted to be working as a critical friend to four of the successful bidders, one of which is Otley College in Suffolk. Neil Ridley, who is leading the project, is a good friend of Magnified Learning, having contributed to The East of England Sustainable Development Survey, which we produced on behalf of LSN for EoE LSC back in 2008. Neil is a member of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture alumni in Iowa www.leopold.iastate.edu, and a significant authority on what sustainable development can mean for rural communities.

Over the years he has done some extraordinary work, including a project across the Eastern region focused on skills development for women, as a route to social cohesion revitalisation of the farming economy.  In fact, our association with Otley College goes back 8 years, since it was the first college to which Nigel acted as external moderator for NCFE’s Sustainable Development qualifications. Nigel is now the chief moderator for these qualifications, which he re-wrote earlier this year and which are now on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) http://www.ncfe.org.uk/PlanetNCFE/SustainableDevelopment.aspx

So it’s only natural that we are really looking forward to working, on behalf of LSIS, with Neil and Otley College over the coming months. We are alsoexcited to be working with Bromley Adult Education Service, Barking and Dagenham College and Sussex Downs College.