Learning communities:  What makes them tick?

What’s a learning community and what makes it work? At least some of the answers are now available from 10 Australian rural and regional learning communities. 

The 10 communities were the focus of an ANTA project last year that looked at the initial stages of becoming a learning community. A learning community is any group of people, whether linked by geography or interest, which addresses the learning needs of its members through proactive partnerships. It explicitly uses learning as a way of promoting social cohesion, regeneration and economic development. 

Each of the 10 communities received $10,000 in funding from ANTA and all have now produced learning audit reports on their experiences. These have now been published and are available on the ANTA web site. One of the communities, Port Augusta in South Australia, is profiled on these pages. 

The other nine communities were: 

• ·         Toowoomba, Queensland;

• ·         Newcastle, New South Wales;

• ·         Deniliquin, New South Wales;

• ·         Launceston, Tasmania;

• ·         Southern Grampians, Victoria;

• ·         Port Pirie, South Australia;

• ·         Copper Coast, South Australia;

• ·         Ceduna, South Australia; and

• ·         Peel Region, Western Australia.

Eight themes emerged consistently from the community’s learning audit reports that are seen as being very important for the sustainable development of learning communities.  These are:

• strong leadership;

• vision with linked strategy;

• economic conditions which induce the public, private and   community sectors to collaborate and network;

• strategic public, private and community partnerships;

• whole of government approaches and support;

• strong community support and awareness;

• use of technologies to support networking; and

• administrative coordination.

To download copies of the audit reports go to http://www.anta.gov.au/project/learningcommunities/default.asp 

For further information contact Liz Keyes. Ph: (07) 3246 2332, fax: (07) 3246 2490, email: keyese@anta.gov.au

Source: ANTA Sept 2002