Nursery World - Prize for parents' learning scheme

An innovative children's centre-based project which aims to help unemployed or low-paid parents back into education has won a prestigious learning award. 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.

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.'

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