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City of Wolverhampton

The City of Wolverhampton with a population of almost 260,000 is one of the top ten growing economies in the UK and forms one of three cities in the UK government’s devolved West Midlands Combined Authority.  The city is diverse, one third of the city’s population is from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups and 19% of the city’s residents were born outside the UK. There are over 88 languages spoken in the city.

Wolverhampton is an ambitious city committed to transformation with billons of pounds private/public investment planned, yet faces significant challenges around inequality, incomes, skills and health and wellbeing in the city.

The City of Wolverhampton has been a member city of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities since 2017 and is building a learning city through the Wolverhampton City Learning Region (WCLR) initiative.  The initiative focuses both on where people live and work rather than administrative boundaries (thus the term City Region) and on the 3 key cross-cutting priorities that require action – realising aspirations, skilled workforce, and engaging adults in learning to improve health and well-being.

The Wolverhampton City Learning Region (WCLR) initiative is a partnership between the core partners: University of Wolverhampton, City of Wolverhampton Council, City of Wolverhampton College, Adult Education Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton Learning Platform and Wolverhampton Learning Communities, and a range of key organisations across Wolverhampton and surrounding areas. 

It builds on the tradition of lifelong learning across the city. The University of Wolverhampton is playing a catalytic role for innovation, research and development within the initiative and supporting its development.  It brings together a wide range of local partners across all sectors to put learning at the heart of the city with a shared understanding it is vital to the economic and social development and growth planned for the city so that local people benefit from development and growth. 

The development of WCLR is based on a series of artefacts which have helped shape the Learning City.  This includes a lifelong learning study of the community and voluntary sector, a benefits of learning study, role of learning in your life study and futures of learning discussion paper.

The Learning City Plan for Wolverhampton is encapsulated in the city’s The Vision for Education 2030: Shaping a City of Learning and the WCLR initiative is embedded into the Strategic Economic Plan, Working and Inclusive City theme with commitment to building a learning city.   There is an impetus through local government to improve learning in the city and encourage lifelong learning.

Wolverhampton has a wide range of organisations working together in partnership to place learning at the heart of the city to tackle social and economic challenges using education and learning as the focus including:

Learning Communities: community-based Lifelong Learning and skills development on a city-wide scale and responsive to the learning needs and interests of residents.

The Learning City Quarter; a £50m investment in transforming a section of the city centre into a Learning Quarter.

The £100m Springfield Campus Project; bringing together regional businesses and the education sector to maximise impact on the economy.

The University of Wolverhampton Children’s University; an innovative approach to tackling unrealised aspiration and attainment in the city region.

Wolverhampton For Everyone - connecting people, places and communities to unlock potential and create positive change across the city.

The ‘Skills Support for Workforce’ project; helping people in work develop their skills and increase their potential and income.

NHS Futures Zone;   the city’s health and social care education resource centre, offering training opportunities and widening potential NHS career opportunities for local people.

Wolverhampton Wanderers Foundation; using the city’s premier league football club for education, health and community engagement programmes to empower local people to realise their potential.

City-wide WCLR Learning Festival ; celebrating and growing a city-wide culture of learning throughout life to encourage involvement and making learning accessible to all.  

In 2019 Wolverhampton was shortlisted for the UNESO Learning City Award 2019.   Learning Communities won the 2019 UALL Award for innovation for its integrated lifelong learning approach.  This is jointly funded by organisations in the Wolverhampton Learning Platform (community learning providers) and the City of Wolverhampton Council.  It is a holistic model for sustainable, community-based lifelong learning and skills development on a city-wide scale and responsive to learning needs and interests of residents. It has been established to offer a coordinated response to supporting people across the city especially those who are socially excluded to access skills and employment services.  This is a key priority for development to make sure that there is accessible learning for all residents in the City.  Other priorities include developing the city’s learning festival which has began in 2019 and developing a collaborative cross-sector approach to make a difference to the factors that influence participation in lifelong learning.