The Wishes project, designed by Capacity, a public interest body for children's services, and funded by Thurrock Council Children's Services in Essex, provides learning and employment training for unemployed and disadvantaged adults. The project, which started in 2005, is run at children's centres across the borough.
Margaret Lochrie, director of Capacity and former head of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said, 'We are very pleased by the award and by the success of Wishes. The idea was to provide learning in a new way - we called the project Wishes as we listened to what parents wanted and tried to provide what they needed. Some parents have had negative experiences of education, and Wishes tries to help them move forward from this.'
Wishes was presented with the Opening Doors to Adult Learners Award, organised by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) at a ceremony in Westminster on Monday as part of Adult Learners' Week (19-25 May).
The 160,000 Wishes project is co-financed by the Learning and Skills Council Essex and the European Social Fund, with resources from partner organisations such as Job Centre Plus and the Thurrock Council for Voluntary Service.
The initial funding has now ended, but Thurrock Council will continue the project with mainstream funding.
Parents have accessed the project to learn to use computers, brush up on basic skills, enrol on courses or learn to improve English as a second language. After one year, participating parents had achieved more than 50 full qualifications. Another 100 are expected to have been achieved by summer 2007.
Ms Lochrie added, 'As well as gaining new skills and qualifications, parents are reporting wider benefits. Many have made new friends and feel less isolated, and others have reported feeling more confident about helping their children's learning and more optimistic about the future.'