Usage of the Centre for both business and learning activity has increased during 2009 and there are many positive developments in progress that promise well for the future.  MNC is proving its delivery on its main objectives and primary mission – ‘to support the sustainable regeneration of the local area through the provision of life-long learning opportunities and the development of a local enterprise culture’. More agencies are continuing to use MNC and partnership links are growing all the time including most recently ‘In Training’ and ‘Home Housing’. Job Centreplus and other agencies are proactively referring clients on to our training services which in turn are geared to the needs of the customers.

Among MNC’s main priorities for the coming year are to implement the Education for Adults improvement plan, and to strengthen its long term position. This will increase the opportunities available in Adult Education. MNC will aim to become ‘contract ready’ in areas such as training, redeployment, one-to-one tuition, etc.

Thanks to the Big Lottery Funding and Future Jobs Fund/CBC, MNC now has an Adult Training and Education Coordinator, Carol Pugh, and Caretaker/General Assistant, Ricky Donoghue.  

MNC through its Adult Education programme is looking to enlist volunteer Learning Champions during March and April. This team will assist the recruitment of learners on to courses.  

The Big Lottery has recently monitored the progress of MNC in its Big Lottery Reaching Communities activities.  It has been pleased with the progress made and the plans for the future. Courtyard works will now begin on Monday 22 March 2010 and are expected to last around six to eight weeks. Several Business Seminar events have been held for Marketing, Finance, Presentation Skills and to come…Sales on 11 May.  Big Lottery will support the partnership event with WCDA on 18 March to support and fund business development activity. One to One Supporting Teaching and Learning is also supported and making extremely good progress.  17 people have so far benefited by this group and includes work on literacy, numeracy, IT, confidence/self esteem, writing CVs and Dyslexia support.

More demands are being made on many Adult Education Centres like Millom, and have experienced a fall in enrolment numbers. The impact of these changes is proving challenging. However, there have been encouraging signs over the last two years of improving performance in many areas. This process will be accelerated with added resources from the new Adult Education and Training Coordinator and Volunteers including the One to One Team, Education and Strategy Group and the proposed team of Learning Champions. Overall, Education for Adults is experiencing much change, progress and development with many positives evident.  

A meeting of the Swimming Pool Group takes place at MNC on Friday 19 March to look at planning and cost issues.  Still to be resolved is the desired location of the pool which will have to take into consideration the ground conditions. It is still hoped that the architect will complete his current brief by 31 March of this year. A BREEAM workshop was also carried out on 15 February to look at good environmental planning and practice throughout the project.

If you know of a group or individual that wants to contribute financially to the project, then the Swimming Pool Group would be glad to find out – you can refer this to Paul Stewart 01229 719650 for more details.