economically valuable skills. The key themes of the policy will be familiar to all working in education: up-skilling the workforce (greater focus on high-level skills); reducing economic inactivity; reducing the number of people with poor basic skills; and re-shaping the system (making it more demand-led and transforming the provider network – as described by John Graystone in a later article). However, its intended recognition of the wider role of learning is harder to identify. Other than specific references to basic skills and ESOL there is scant mention of adult learning. Especially worrying is the lack of recognition of the broader role adult learning can play, particularly in providing a first step back into learning.
The action plan contains only one action
point relating to adult and community learning (ACL) of a total of 76 actions. That commits to consulting on a policy for ACL, a consultation that took place throughout 2008, with NIACE Dysgu Cymru working closely with the sector, and with Assembly Government officials in its preparation. The ACL policy was originally due to be published in February 2009 but has not yet emerged. The new minister is now minded to reduce the number of new policies and strategies from his department and it is a distinct possibility that there will now be no policy for ACL, and an overarching strategy which does not reflect the contribution of adult learning to a range of government priorities.
Higher education Skills that Work for Wales also made a commitment to reviewing higher education in Wales. Following the review, chaired by Professor Mervyn Jones, For Our Future: The 21st-Century Higher Education Strategy and Plan for Wales was published at the end of 2009. This document also illustrates the stated commitment of the Assembly Government to both social justice and economic stability: ‘The two pillars of social justice and supporting a buoyant economy form the basis of our refreshed national policy on Higher Education.’ However, whether social justice will remain as central in the implementation of this policy remains to be seen, particularly in the context of Lord Browne’s review of the funding of HE in England, and the inevitable knock-on effects for Wales’s HE sector. In the foreword to the Assembly Govern- ment 2008 policy document, Transformation of Education and Training Provision in Wales, the then Deputy Minister for skills made the connection between social justice and the reconfiguration of post-16 education and training: ‘To realise a just Wales, where everyone has a chance to succeed, we must secure improvements’. Certainly, there will be an increase in opportunities for some individuals under this process, not least in the work-based learning sector, already delivering to over 60,000 individuals in Wales. Indeed, work-based learning is seen as
10 ADULTS LEARNING APRIL 2010
crucial to delivering flagship programmes of the Assembly Government, such as apprent- iceships and Skill Build. Whether it is incentivised to widen participation to ensure everyone has a chance to succeed is less clear. The Welsh Assembly Government has already abolished the upper age limit for apprenticeships, enabling ‘a broader range of people to benefit from the programme, in line with the Assembly Government’s commitment to social justice’. However, despite this, Skills that Work for Wales makes clear the intention to ‘create more oppor- tunities for young people to access apprenticeships’ and commits to allocating financial support to ensure 16-19 year olds have the support and incentives required to participate. There is no question that the quality of provision offered in the work-based learning sector is high, and improving (as illustrated by Arwyn Watkins in the following article). However, unless given a clear policy and funding steer by the Assembly Govern- ment, the social justice ambitions in relation to all-age provision will not be fully met.
Principles of governance Much has been made of the differences in policy between the countries of the UK, and when the National Assembly for Wales was established in 1999 it proudly represented an attempt to not only bring politics closer to the people of Wales, but also to establish new principles of governance. Certainly, the themes of collaboration not competition, transparency, engagement and participation, and ‘equality of outcome’ were
widely
welcomed. However, evidence of whether implementation of policy has remained true to these principles is less clear. With the continued drive towards greater efficiency, and education firmly seen as the vehicle for economic emancipation, questions arise about whether policy ‘made in Wales’ will continue to bear the hallmarks of the founding principles of devolved governance. Recent policy developments relating to adult learning have taken the usual steps to engage with the sector, gather evidence and consult. Indeed, in many instances a degree of consensus has been reached amongst providers and policymakers. However, polit- ical events and changes in personnel (in both civil service and government) can radically change direction. Nancy Shulock wrote of the ‘the paradox of policy analysis’, a paradox arising from ‘a mismatch between notions of how the policy process should work and its actual messy, uncertain, unstable and essentially political realities’. It is difficult not to conclude that, in times of political instability, adult learning does not fare well. Certainly, the education sector in Wales has moved from having the longest-serving education minister in the UK (Jane Davidson was Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills for eight years) to having three ministers in three years. It is clear that
the case for adult learning needs to be made more strongly than ever in Wales. David Halpern (previously of the Number 10 policy unit), in a talk to the Overseas Develop- ment Institute in 2003, explains that for evidence to be ‘heard’ it has to be within a policymakers ‘zone of proximal development’:
You have to keep talking to policymakers, even where this is frustrating at times. You have to keep looking for the window of opportunity. You can be banging on about an issue for years and years and no one seems to listen and then the right configuration of factors will emerge and, all of a sudden, it will be the issue and there will
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