CONTENTS NOVEMBER 2009 I


n a speech last June, Gordon Brown said that social mobility was the ‘abiding reason’ for his commitment to public service. He described himself as a child of the ‘first great post-war wave of social mobility’. When he commissioned Alan Milburn to chair a panel on ‘Fair Access to the Professions’ it was to find out why this first wave had not been followed by another. The panel’s final report must have made depressing reading. While seven per cent of the population attend public schools, it reported, more than half of all top professional jobs are taken by candidates who did so. Currently, 75 per cent of judges, 70 per cent of finance directors and 45 per cent of senior civil servants had private educations. Fran Abrams asks why, after decades of free compulsory education and numerous initiatives to encourage participation in further and higher education, so many young people from working-class backgrounds are disengaged, seemingly condemned to the sort of low-paid work, or worklessness, experienced by their parents. The young people she interviewed had been failed by the system, cut loose from school at 16 with little information about what education or training might be available. Some seemed hopelessly disaffected, yet, even with the worst cases, an encouraging connection with an adult who believed in them was often all that was needed to turn their lives around. As Mary Stuart argues, some such shift in the way we think about these young people and their communities could be critical in ensuring that the programme of widening participation introduced by Labour is a success. It does no good to condemn working-class young people as devoid of aspiration. Like their middle-class counterparts they are simply not able to imagine anything radically different to the lives their parents live. But by working with parents, and by finding good examples, positive role models and peer mentors, within these communities, we can create conditions in which these initiatives might begin to bear fruit. Research from the University and College Union suggests we have a long way to go. Where you live remains a major determinant of educational success, and the gap between the educational haves and have-nots is getting wider. The problem is deep- seated and while it is certainly no ‘silver bullet’, education, backed up by adequate advice and guidance and well-targeted support, is not a bad place to start.


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Paul Stanistreet Editor – Adults Learning


20 ‘Mind to mind, heart to heart’


Over the past two decades there has been a huge growth of interest in the art of storytelling, with people in all sorts of different settings recognising its value as a tool for teaching and communication. Paul Stanistreet travelled to Scotland, with its centuries-old tradition of oral storytelling, to find out why


26 Reading for life A focus on reader development is


SUBSCRIBE TO ADULTS LEARNING – TURN TO PAGE 31 OR VISIT WWW.NIACE.ORG.UK/ADULTSLEARNING Cover picture:  Magnum/Simon Wheatley


changing the way public libraries work, and transforming people’s lives


significant disadvantage as a result of their caring responsibilities – not least in education. While there is some creative and flexible provision out there, too often providers fail to take account of the specific needs and responsibilities of young carers, says Nicola Aylward


NOVEMBER 2009 ADULTS LEARNING 3


in the process. The Reading Agency has led many of these changes but they are only the start – with better, sustained funding, there is so much more that libraries could do, writes Miranda McKearney


29 ‘They just don’t get it’ Young adult carers experience


30 It’s about putting


service-users first As the Government finalises plans for its universal Adult Advancement and Careers Service, Tony McAleavy considers what can be learned from services currently offering holistic support to disadvantaged groups


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