Ten local residents who visited Ireland as part of a study group last October are to receive Certificates of Achievement from Councillor Kevin Maton, Chair of the City Council's Training Policy Team.

The presentation marks the achievement of all the people involved in the visit. The purpose of the trip was to learn and share experiences with individuals and groups in Dublin to find out how people had identified their needs regarding adult education, employment and community development.

In November the group attended a conference, taking part in workshops and discussion groups to share their findings from the trip. They designed display boards with photographs of the people and places they had visited, and also wrote about the whole trip.

Councillor Maton says: 

"This trip was a new experience for everyone involved. A lot was learned from it, and the report sharing the findings of the trip is excellent. Full credit is given to everyone for this fantastic piece of work, which has given us a great deal of useful information and some good ideas about expanding adult education and community development in Coventry."

The group was made up of unemployed people from the Radford and Holbrooks areas of Coventry. They visited a number of people and organisations that have successfully influenced decision-makers and contributed to local development and regeneration in their areas.

The trip was organised as part of the Community Education Action Learning for Local Development Project, and was funded from the European Social Fund's EMPLOYMENT (Integra) fund.