A Philosophy of Adult Learning and Development
ELM courses are practical and participatory, but they are underpinned by an emphasis on people–development.
TRAINING
Training focuses on developing skills that are needed for a job in an organisation. It is primarily about meeting the needs determined by the community, around set skills’ standards. e.g. Uniting Church Polity and Ethos Training — exists to educate people working within the Uniting Church context about how the Uniting Church is organised and what its values are. See information about the Living Values course.
VET (Vocational Education and Training)
This includes training but is more focused on the needs of the individuals to acquire the skills that will be needed in a community or organisation. VET is often associated with gaining nationally recognized qualifications that can become transferable from one organisation to another.
e.g. Child Protection training is common to the church and other organisations, so the Core components of Child Protection training will be similar and cross-creditable across different groups. Note, however, that the Uniting Church will require its workers to be able to understand and apply Uniting Church Policies and Procedures in relation to Child Protection. Hence, the need to do some specific training.
LEARNING and DEVELOPMENT
Learning and Development refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and behaviours that improve one’s ability to meet changes as they occur. Thus, there is a focus on integrating learning and with life application.
e.g. An Elder might be trained to undertake certain current duties, but ongoing learning and development will help the Elder to undertake the Ministry of Eldership within a changing context, both now and in the future.
ELM is involved in specific training and vocational education and training as they serve the primary goal of encouraging adult learning and development.
Personal and Community Development
ELM courses are designed for individuals, groups, Congregations, Presbyteries and organisations. Adult learning assumes personal responsibility and a degree of self-direction and motivation. People get the most out of ELM courses when they invest themselves in full participation.
A range of courses are run at the Centre for Ministry at North Parramatta and in regional centres and anyone can participate. Other courses are organised in partnership with groups and are hosted by them with focused learning goals.
ELM aims to foster the development of learning communities. We use a lot of group work and encourage people to learn from one another. Interpersonal development is important for all ministry development and for each and every disciple in order to take their place in living within the realm of God. Many learning tasks and activities are built around personal interactions with others.
Partnerships with Presbyteries and Organizations
Priority is given to supporting partnership delivery of courses. Where a Presbytery (or other group) is able to identify people who can be trained as Facilitators and is prepared to host and co-organize course events (including some scholarship support for participants), ELM provides the initial course material, training opportunities for Facilitators, mentoring and support for Facilitators. While ELM staff may initially model some of the teaching and facilitating of courses, local leaders soon move into these roles and ELM staff act as support and backup. This enables local leadership to emerge and experiment in a safe learning environment. This is one of our key strategies for supporting the development of Resource Ministry.
This model has been developed initially in the Macquarie-Darling Presbytery, with some great team synergies developing. One of the attractions of this model is that courses are always being improved by the practical contribution and thinking of people who are grounded in local expressions of ministry.
