Each project generated a process and a product. The process helped participants gain ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ skills, such as self-esteem, group working, investigative research, communication, presentation, photography, painting, film-making, sculpture, web-page design, and sound recording. Many of these were learnt subtly as a project unfolded, but the Open College Network course structure encouraged reflection, recognition and recording of these learning experiences. The product – the art work – was a more tangible outcome which was always a source of pride, and enabled participants to show their peers, families, communities and the public what they were capable of achieving. Another distinctive feature of the scheme was the way Amgueddfa Cymru ~ National Museum Wales used its prestigious facilities to exhibit all of these high-quality art works so that thousands of people appreciated the creative skills young people use to explore their place in the world and the influences that the past had upon them.
This phase of the On Common Ground scheme was aimed at involving and benefiting at least 400 young people aged between 14 and 24. An accurate out-turn prediction suggested that almost 600 were involved in 55 OCG2 projects, with about 500 achieving an Open College Network accreditation. The scale of the scheme was therefore significant, involving as it did a large number of young people from a range of deprived urban and rural communities.
A distinctive aspect of OCG2 was how it integrated a tailor-made Open College Network Level 1 course with creative, arts and design activities and related historical research. The course required participants to engage in at least 30 hours of project work during which they had to plan, record and evaluate their learning experiences using a course folder. There was a logical sequence to the structure of the folders, and the design of each section was imaginative and easy to complete. It was not necessary for the user to write more than a sentence or two, and in some instances a word, a phrase or a picture was all that was needed to record relevant ideas, plans and activities. There was plenty of scope for photographs and drawings, and this seems to have been a popular element of the folders.