London Youth Services to Benefit from Partnership
<p><strong>London — May 4</strong><br />A ground-breaking partnership between Partnership for Young London BT and the youth services of four London boroughs — Croydon, Richmond, Tower Hamlets and Westminster — has resulted in more flexible, accessible, efficient and cost-effective ways of delivering workforce development materials.<br /><br />Known as the Ypower program, this partnership enables each local authority to share in a managed learning service, delivering personalized learning for workers in areas such as safeguarding, common assessment framework (CAF), and health and safety. </p><p>Ypower allows managers to record individuals' training requirements, deliver against these requirements and track the training that has been provided.<br /><br />"Ypower offers much better use of learners' time, with essential information being delivered online, allowing classroom delivery to focus on more practical applications of learning," said Roger King, deputy head of Youth Service in Croydon.<br /><br />Helen Hibbert Partnership for Young London strategic director agrees</p><p>"We are confident that Ypower will deliver a better trained, more efficient workforce for youth services right across the capital and maybe even the nation," she said. </p><p>The Ypower partnership has commissioned both generic courses such as a basic introduction to health and safety, as well as risk assessment, and two youth service-specific packages: Safeguarding Children and Young People and Common Assessment Framework training.<br /><br />These e-learning programs have been produced by Tata Interactive Systems (TIS). </p><p>BT and TIS think the Ypower programs — which can be customized to each council or department — provide an accurate, up-to-date message that is easily accessible and widely available as and when required.<br /><br />"Ultimately, the Ypower partnership looks to create a comprehensive portfolio of online and classroom courses and make them widely available to youth services and youth organizations across the country," said Viren Lall of BT, which manages the Ypower programs with Partnership for Young London.</p><p>Croydon's Roger King said discussions are being held with the Children's Workforce Development Council to explore the potential contribution of Ypower to the development children's services nationwide. </p>
