Faith and community leaders graduate from first ever government recognised course in community leadership

Published	19 March 2008

Cohesion Minister Parmjit Dhanda and Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education Bill Rammell today attended a graduation event for the first group of community faith leaders and youth workers to complete a new government recognised course in Community Leadership.

Faith leaders from across four pilot areas in the UK - Bradford, Sheffield, Leicester and Tower Hamlets - are the first people to have taken this new fully accredited, nationally recognised qualification.

The course has equipped faith leaders with skills in leadership, negotiation, and team building, as well as how to better communicate with young people and the wider community and the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) working with the Open College Network, have created a totally new OCN accredited qualification in Community Leadership for those completing the course.

Ministers first announced the course in April 2007 as part of a package of measures aimed at supporting local communities to isolate and defeat violent extremists. The qualification was developed in response to calls from faith leaders themselves, particularly from Muslim leaders, who told Government that they wanted to get better at building relations and engaging with their local communities.

Over half of the participants on the course have come from Muslim communities; however the course has been open to leaders from all faith groups - with participants coming from Sikh, Hindu and Christian communities.

Working together through a multi faith approach helps to build cohesive communities, building understanding between faiths and highlight the values we all share. Through working together faith leaders can help to bring about positive and concrete change within their local communities.

Parmjit Dhanda and Bill Rammell are attending a celebratory graduation with the course participants and will also announce plans to support further courses to run in other areas of the country so that even more people who are active in their faith and local communities can develop their leadership skills and ultimately help to build stronger and more cohesive communities.

Bill Rammell, Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education said:

"This Continuing Professional Development package NIACE have developed for Faith Leaders, Workers and Volunteers is a very clear example of the power of learning to help our citizens to increase what they can achieve within our society and to change our communities as a result. We are particularly interested in the value of creating space for free and open debate and discovering common values. I hope that this course will both model that kind of space and equip people working within faith communities to provide such opportunities within the communities and organisations within which they work."

Parmjit Dhanda, Minister for Cohesion said:

"I want to congratulate this group of faith leaders who have invested their own time in attending the community leadership course - the first of its kind in the country, and acquiring the skills they need to help them better operate in, and engage with, their communities and wider society. It is particularly important in the current climate for us to support Muslim communities to effectively and confidently challenge violent extremism - strong faith leaders are key in this battle."

Alan Tuckett Director of NIACE said:

"NIACE was pleased to be commissioned by DIUS and Communities and Local Government to develop and deliver this exciting new qualification in community development for faith leaders, workers and volunteers. We have years of experience working with adult learners in the voluntary sector but working in partnership with faith organisations has been a wonderful opportunity for us in developing this new qualification."

He continued,

"We are pleased to meet with Ministers today to celebrate the achievements of these learners and to mark a significant step in building capacity in the faith sector. It is clear from the feedback we have received that the outcomes are far more varied than the simple qualification. We have demonstrated that the process is as important as the content and that a multi-faith approach is by far the most successful in building robust and resilient communities."

The course covered the following:

Developing Group and Teamwork Skills.
Effective Leadership - examining ways in which faith leaders can better lead their communities and work together across faiths.
Negotiating skills - including conflict resolution and encouraging dialogue within in communities.
The Voluntary and Community Sector - an examination of ways in which faith leaders can better engage and work with the voluntary and community sectors for the benefit of the wider community.
Understanding Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship and Understanding Diversity within Society - as well as recognising and communicating the shared values we all share.
Working with Children and Young People - learning how best to communicate with young people around difficult and sensitive issues as well learning about child protection legislation etc.

Later in the day, Bill Rammell will be speaking at an event in Bradford hosted by Forward Thinking which sees the publication of a research report, Forgotten Voices: developing more effective engagement with Muslim youth and communities, looking at the attitudes of young Muslims. One of the findings of that report is that interviewees believed that the most important factor in guaranteeing social cohesion was community members' dedication to shared norms and values, as well as their pro-active engagement with community members from different ethnic and/or religious backgrounds. The experience of the pilots shows that this new qualification does exactly that and has great potential in building more cohesive communities across the country.

Notes to editors

1. The aim of the CPD project was to deliver a community leadership qualification that would contribute to two main objectives:

(A) To build confidence, knowledge and skills amongst faith community members to enable them to play a strong leadership role in their wider communities;

(B) In addition, and specifically in relation to Muslim communities, to support efforts to develop Muslim faith leaders as effective and confident leaders who can take the lead in building resilience to violent extremism.

2. The course was delivered by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, who have created:

a new qualification, available through NOCN in September
a team of trainers ready to roll out this new course
a course which was developed through a 'bottom up' model (in consultation with learners from a wide range of faiths in different parts of the country)

3. The graduation event was held at the Pakistan Muslim Centre, in Sheffield.