ESB is looking for practice verifiers and trainers!
Do you have experience in Community Development and are interested in working with us to expand where we can offer our Recognition and training programmes?
The England Standards Board for Community Development is continuing to develop certificated learning opportunities for practitioners, in addition to our endorsement QA work with programmes.
We offer 3 forms of Recognition, a mentor supported portfolio route to CD certification at different levels (full details on our web site esbendorsement.org.uk) which can include webinars and on line training for those taking on the mentoring work, and for participants there are workshops on the basics of understanding Recognition, portfolio building and presentation skills. There are optional workshops that are offered to meet the needs of a articular cohort often on Reflective Practice, conflict in communities, group working etc. To gain full Recognition people as well as presenting their portfolio to panel they need to have been seen in practice by a verifier who visits to see them in action.
We also offer a series of bite sized sessions which can make up basic CD short courses to suit the needs of the group, these can be face to face or a mix of face to face and zoom training session; the latter are often on the more specialist topics such as environmental CD. Our current topics include, what is CD, involving people, understanding groups, dealing with conflict, organising an event.
We currently have a number of requests for Recognition Programmes and for the short courses, from different parts of the country and so we are seeking to expand our range of trainers/ facilitators and practice verifiers and panel members (for Recognition). We are looking for people who would like to work with us on and as and when needed basis. The work can be remunerated/ expenses paid or undertaken to support professional scholarly work/ CPD. We have the training materials which can be used/ adapted for most workshops apart from the specialist ones. We can offer guidance and support and have all the paper work for Recognition and course based practice verification.
We are likely to have demand in the autumn for Recognition in Cumbria and the NE, Hull/ North Yorkshire and later on in London but requests may come in from other regions at any time. Some of the work is location specified, as in practice verifiers and for face to face training. Other work such as webinars and panels are conducted through zoom.
We are interested in hearing from people who have experience and knowledge of community development as we understand it (based on the IACD international definition and the UK CD NOS key purpose and values) and who are/ can become familiar with our criteria for professional practice. For running workshops we would be looking for people with some experience in training/ facilitation. If you feel you have some skills or knowledge to contribute to these programmes, or indeed have other suggestions then get in touch with us
Membership of ESB is open to anyone who is interested in Community Development Learning and Qualifications, is experienced in the field and who accepts the principles and values of community development and the ESB criteria.
On a day to day basis work is co-ordinated by a Board of volunteers. Members can join in with any areas of the ESB’s work:
- Joining the Board to assist with strategic development
- Opting to represent the ESB on other bodies
- Becoming involved in specific events or areas of work including reading, reporting and panel membership for endorsements
How does it work and what roles are there?
People move in and out of the work as their situation changes, they may have more or less time, have changed jobs or move to retirement. People may also join the Board to add additional or complementary skills and knowledge e.g. with the more recent work on dual validation people with a youth and community background have put themselves forward and become involved.
The Board meets by Skype a few times a year and, when resources permit, it meets face to face, usually once a year. Similarly working groups on specific tasks link by Skype with the occasional meeting.
ESB does not have any paid staff and pays for web hosting and website work and for the administration connected to endorsements on a piece by piece basis. Occasionally the ESB pays for specific pieces of work, e.g. designing the research questionnaire, but generally members freely volunteer their time with expenses being paid where appropriate.
Some people apply to be readers and reporters for the endorsement teams; you can apply by contacting us. These are scrutinised by 2 people from the Board, who are nominated annually. People accepted into the reader and reporters roles are offered initial training and then refresher training as required. These are different as they are paid roles. Whenever a programme is due to be endorsed a call will go out to the pool of trained readers/ reporters and a team selected from those available. Each person will be given a contract with an allocated number of hours for the programme they are endorsing. Readers/ reporters can choose to opt out for a time if their situation changes and then come back in again later, with refresher training if required.
Anyone interested in knowing more about the Board can get in touch with the ESB here and an active current member will be in touch to talk about how they may wish to join in, based on their interests and expertise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Anyone with an interest in community development learning
You must have a relevant community development qualification at the equivalent level you will be reading or reporting for i.e. if you wish to read for a undergraduate degree you must hold at least the equivalent of an undergraduate degree.
People get involved in ESB at either a strategic level through the secretariat which decides on the direction and activities of ESB, or an a project level, joining in with working groups for a specific piece of work.
The secretariat meets online every 6 weeks to develop up ideas for the future of ESB and to keep an overview of ESB's current work and to ensure community development is heard in various national bodies and forums.
We were primarily a quality assuring body, taking on the role similar to a PSRB, and offering an endorsement service to programme and course organisers, to show the quality of the programmes on offer. The demise of almost all community development learning and qualification programmes is leading ESB to look at where and how to position itself in future and we have been holding regular open discussions about this over the past year or so.
For many years now we have also offered Recognition, a mentor supported portfolio route for practitioners which leads to certification by ESB.
People have joined to become part of the endorsement teams or to act as mentors/ assessors for Recognition cohorts. With the drop in demand for endorsement of HE programmes we do not need so many readers/ reporters but we would like to talk to anyone who is interested in this area of paid work. We have been running more Recognition schemes and if this trend continues we will be looking for more mentor/ assessors.
More recently we have decided to try and create training materials for bite sized and short courses in different aspects of CD skills and have commissioned some sessions to be written to use both in direct delivery with open courses, or for tailored made sessions for an organisation's volunteers. These level 2 sessions could be used as exemplars to seek funding to develop a broader CD framework for learning. We are also looking to develop some short courses on aspects of CD using the lens of equality, diversity and inclusion. We would also like to develop some level 3/4 workshops to support Recognition cohorts. The aim is to produce material that can be used face to face or on hybrid courses, or online workshops. We are also updating material that trainers/ facilitators can use to build learning groups utilsing the expertise within the group.
We have recently started to look at how we could create material and courses for activists and academics in research skills and how to engage with communities using participatory methods based on CD values and processes.
We are also exploring the possibility of running regular webinars to support the professional development of practitioners and to encourage sharing of practice and ideas.
If you are interested in any of these aspects of our work please do get in touch to arrange a time to chat.
Higher education institutions and Recognition centres
Regogntion is validation of learning through reflection
Recognition is a mentor supported process which validates people's learning from reflecting on their practice (paid or unpaid). Recognition is based on the core values of community development and the ESB criteria for community development work (incorporating the 2023 UK CD NOS, the IACD international Standards for Community Development and the UN sustainability goals) which set out the skills and knowledge required to be an effective CD practitioner.
Find out more about Recognition here