Tool: Citizens’ Curriculum resources

The “Citizens’ Curriculum resources” is a tool developed in United Kingdom in 2015-16 (revised in 2016-17) by the Learning and Work Institute. It has been used with immigrants, homeless and vulnerably housed adults, young adults, offenders/Ex-offenders, people experiencing or recovering from alcohol or substance misuse, people with physical/mental health issues) and vulnerable & marginalised groups. It is aiming at promoting the strengthening of literacy, numeracy, digital, health, civic and financial capabilities among them.

 

Picture 1: An example of a Civic Capability Framework as part of Citizens’ Curriculum

Citizens’ Curriculum resources, used in the UK, is a tool, designed to support providers and practitioners in developing and implementing their own Citizens’ Curriculum model of ensuring everyone has the language, maths, digital, civic, health and financial capabilities needed for life and work in todays’ society. The Citizens’ Curriculum model in its basis has been developed to be used with recent migrants, homeless or vulnerably housed adults, young adults in disadvantaged areas, adults experiencing or recovering from alcohol, substance misuse, and offenders/ex-offenders.

The resources support organisations in adapting and implementing the Citizens’ Curriculum model in a way that suits the learners’ needs (for example, the Capability Frameworks have been used effectively in work in the project, which developed and trialled language-based interventions for ex/offenders or those working with them, to help ex/offenders with English as a second language in order to better access education, employment and re-settlement support).

The applicability of the innovative tool for the development of Life Skills

Each framework provides information and guidance on what tasks need to be completed to develop the Citizens’ Curriculum model, which includes representative showcasing examples of Citizens’ Curriculum delivery models, for example a variety of previous and current Citizens’ Curriculum pilots with the option of downloadable podcasts alongside. The tool also offers information and guidance on how to evidence and evaluate the outcomes achieved by the Citizens’ Curriculum programmes, and highlights effective practice and the critical success factors.