Welcome

Welcome to the Learning Together Cheshire and Warrington website.

Learning Together Cheshire and Warrington (LTCW) is the voluntary sector Learning Consortium for the Cheshire and Warrington Sub-Region. We are a membership organisation which seeks to promote and represent members' interests related to learning and skills development.

For more information about us follow this link.

Keep in touch through twitter

You can keep informed by following us on twitter... as we publish bulletins and updates to our website we will tweet and let you know.

Join our Conference 12

Thursday March 22^nd 2012
Middlewich

Conference Theme - Impact - Making, Measuring and Showing

More than ever, organisations in the voluntary sector need to show that they are competent, make a difference and are worth investing in during these times of scarce resources.

This year's conference has a focus on the theme of Impact—

• how you can be more effective and make an impact on your client group
• how you can best capture the quality of what you do and
• how well you work, and ways that you can best show potential funders or commissioners that funding placed with you is money well and effectively spent.

The Keynote speakers and workshops are all covering different aspects of the conference theme, and will help you to develop your thinking and practice, make new links and help to make your organisation resilient and successfully weather these difficult times.

The Conference is free to all to attract the widest possible range of delegates from the Public and Voluntary Sectors. To reserve your place please E-mail admin@learning-together.co.uk so that we can send you further details of the workshops.

Download the conference flyer here.

Monitoring the Cuts

The TUC sponsored blogsite "False Economy" has recently announced the outcome of their research produced from Freedom of Information requests to local authorities across the UK which highlights more than 2,000 voluntary organisations that have had funding cuts or complete withdrawal of funding.

The False Economy research shows that charities face net funding reductions of more than £110 million this year, though the final figure is likely to be far higher given that some large authorities have not yet finalised where the cuts will hit.

You can access the full information they present as well as access an interactive map presenting the findings at spreadsheet of their reserach from http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/exclusive-more-than-2000-charities-and-community-groups-face-cuts

Another website  Voluntary Sector Cuts is a collaborative project which maps intelligence about voluntary groups experiencing reductions in public sector funding.

If you're involved in a voluntary or community group which has been told its statutory funding will be reduced, you can be part of this work by sharing your story.

Just fill in a simple online form to share your experiences and the impact the cuts will have on the people who use your services.

Your contribution will be crucial to building a wider picture of the scale of the challenge ahead in your community, your region, or nationally.

Cuts that you share on the voluntary sector cuts website will be made available publicly in a google spreadsheet.

Join us!

LTCW welcomes not-for-profit voluntary and community organisations active in the area to join our learning network. Download an information sheet which explains what we do and the advantages of becoming a member.

You can either join on-line or fill in and return a membership application form.

To join on-line please go to the "Join Us" page by following this link.
Please note - only third sector organisations active in Cheshire and Warrington are eligible to join LTCW.

If you are not from such an organistion, you can still stay in touch with news on the learning agenda and receive our monthly newsletter which is E-mailed free of charge by registering for our newsletter (see panel to the right).

Training Calendar

At the beginning of each month we publish a Training Calendar which highlights training opportunities available to the sector. This is a compilation of the training events that are listed on this website for a rolling three month period.

The calendar is published as a separate document to the newsletter and is sent out to all LTCW members every month. Follow this link to the latest training calendar. Organisations who are not members can register to receive the training calendar by e-mail each month by using the "register for our E-newsletter" link to the right of this page.

Training opportunties are also shown on the training pages of this website or via the calendar to the right of this article – click on to any highlighted date to see what is available.

Job Vacancies

From time to time member organisations let us know of job vacancies within their own or partner organisations. We include these on our website as a service to our members. You can see what is currently available from this link to our vacancies page.

We would like to hear from you

If you have any comments about this website or would like to suggest some possible content that would be useful to our membership please let us know.

Please go to the contact page and send us your message.

Helping to get Britain On-Line

Race Online 2012 is a Government challenge to everyone in the UK.

LTCW has signed up as a partner to promote awareness of the campaign.

Their ambition is to make the UK the first nation in the world where everyone can use the web.

Technology links us together like never before.The UK has 40 million adult internet users, with 30 million people using the web every day. However, there are 9 million adults in the UK who have never used the internet – the combined size of the entire population of our five biggest cities.

Four million of those are among the most disadvantaged:

• 39% are over 65
• 38% are unemployed
• 19% are families with children.

The Government is calling for urgent action to inspire, encourage and support millions more people online by the end of the Olympic year 2012 through partnership with government, industry, charities and individuals.

Find out more from: http://raceonline2012.org/

Give an Hour for Christmas

Race Online 2012 is encouraging everyone to give an hour this christmas time to help someone who does not currently use the internet to become confident enough to access what it has to offer. Go to the Give an Hour website to find out more.

Resources available to support older learners

BBC First Click is also a Race online 2012 partner......

"Using a computer can be easier than you think, so come along and take your first steps with the BBC"

Does this message sound familiar? Then you may have caught one of the many BBC Radio or BBC TV trails being played nationally and in the North West since the BBC's launch of First Click in October 2010.

BBC First Click have had great interest and demand for courses, and they now need more partners to team up with to deliver the course, which is aimed where the need is greatest - with older audiences.

If you're interested in being a course provider, you can either run a bespoke First Click course, or include it as part of the beginners IT courses you may already provide.

You'll be listed on their Freephone Helpline (08000 150 950) which is being regularly promoted on air and you'll be eligible for a number of FREE resources for your learners and your tutor, assuming you meet their Terms and Conditions.

For more information, please contact Terri Sweeney, BBC Learning Project Manager for the North West on 0161 244 3022

or E-mail: terri.sweeney@bbc.co.uk
Website: www.bbc.co.uk/firstclick