Open College Network Northern Ireland · RQF Level 2
OCN NI Level 2 Certificate in Community Development
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 2
- Total credits13
- Guided learning104 hours
- Units in this qualification17
Awarded by Open College Network Northern Ireland · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
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What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
Specification OCN NI...ommunity Development.pdf Open Share Previewing Specification OCN NI L1-L2-L3 Suite of Community Development.pdf Specification OCN NI L1-L2-L3 Suite of Community Development.pdf
These are the units Open College Network Northern Ireland registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Collaborative and Cross-sectoral WorkReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand political structures available to support communities
- Understand civic structures available to support communities
- Understand the role of public bodies in supporting communities
- Understand the responsibilities of public bodies in supporting communities
- Understand collaborative working
- Understand partnership working
Community Development History and ContextReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the historical background of local community development, including key events and influential figures.
- Be aware of issues which may impact on community development, including social, economic, and environmental factors.
Community Development Monitoring and EvaluationReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Know the purpose of monitoring and evaluation within community development, including its role in improving project effectiveness.
- Plan monitoring and evaluation activity, including identifying key indicators and data collection methods.
- Collect monitoring and evaluation data, using appropriate tools and techniques.
- Analyse monitoring and evaluation data, and draw conclusions about project performance.
Community LeadershipReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Know the key concepts, essential skills, and desirable qualities of effective community leadership.
- Assess and develop own leadership skills in the context of community development.
Community Learning for Social ChangeReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the purpose of community learning for social change
- Understand the practice of community learning for social change
- Identify own learning needs
- Reflect on own practice
Equality and Good RelationsReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand key concepts relating to equality and good relations, including definitions and practical applications.
- Understand the importance of Equality legislation, including its purpose and impact on communities.
- Understand what is meant by good relations, including the factors that contribute to positive relationships.
- Know the causes and consequences of conflict within and between communities, including the impact on individuals and society.
- Use a range of strategies to address community tension and conflict, including mediation and negotiation techniques.
Funding and Resourcing Community ProjectsReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the role and purpose of fundraising for community projects, including its importance in achieving project goals.
- Understand funding information policies and procedures, including application processes and reporting requirements.
- Carry out a funding activity for a community project, including planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Governance and Organisational DevelopmentReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand appropriate organisational structures for community development
- Understand appropriate legal structures for community development
- Recognise what is meant by charitable status
- Be aware of the roles of governing bodies
Group work and Collective ActionReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand why people become involved in groups
- Understand why people become involved in networks
- Understand group work principles
- Understand group work dynamics
- Understand the issues on inclusion within groups
- Understand the issues on exclusion within groups
Planning Community ProjectsReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the importance of planning for community development, including its role in achieving sustainable outcomes.
- Engage communities in planning a community project, including facilitating participation and gathering input.
- Support community project planning, including providing resources and guidance.
Support Collaborative and Partnership WorkReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the value and benefits of collaborative and partnership working for community groups and organisations.
- Understand different models of formal and informal partnership arrangements, including their respective advantages and disadvantages.
- Understand the potential implications, both positive and negative, for community groups or organisations when involved in partnership arrangements.
Understand and Engage with CommunitiesReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the range and diversity of community development structures, recognising different organisational models and their functions
- Use a range of methods to understand and engage with individuals and diverse communities, adapting approaches to suit different contexts and needs
- Understand how legislation and policies impact on communities, recognising the legal and regulatory frameworks that affect their lives
- Understand the assets and needs within a community, identifying strengths and challenges to inform community development initiatives
Understanding Community Development PracticeReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the purpose of community development
- Understand the process of community development
- Know the values of community development practice
- Apply the values of community development practice
- Know the process of community development practice
- Apply the process of community development practice
Understanding Community PlanningReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles and purpose of community planning.
- Know the stages and processes involved in effective community planning.
- Engage effectively with the community planning process, contributing to its development and implementation.
Understanding Social EnterpriseReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the purpose and function of a social enterprise within the wider economy.
- Be aware of different legal and organisational structures available to social enterprises.
- Assess the viability of potential business ideas for development as successful social enterprises.
Understanding and Influencing Political GovernanceReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Know how political governance structures operate at various levels, including local, regional, and national.
- Understand the roles and responsibilities of elected representatives within different political governance structures.
- Collaborate with others to effectively influence local decision-making processes.
Understanding the Strategic Planning processReal unit · Open College Network Northern Ireland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the fundamental concept of strategic planning within an organisational context.
- Know and describe the key stages involved in the strategic planning process.
- Conduct a strategic audit for a specified organisation, identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 2 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Advise on organisational structures to support community development
- Develop and sustain cross-sectoral collaborative working for health and wellbeing
- Encourage and support public bodies to build effective relationships with communities
- Encourage and support public bodies to build relationships with communities
- Facilitate Community Leadership
- Facilitate community learning for social and political development
- Get to know a community
- Integrate and use the values and process of community development
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your own work
Learners will gain knowledge of political, civic, and public body structures that support communities. The unit covers collabourative and partnership working, enabling learners to engage effectively with these structures to achieve community goals.
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for OCN NI Level 2 Certificate in Community Development
17 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Open College Network Northern Ireland.
- Collaborative and Cross-sectoral Work
- Community Development History and Context
- Community Development Monitoring and Evaluation
- Community Leadership
- Community Learning for Social Change
- Equality and Good Relations
and 11 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.