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elcome to the April 2010 issue of Adults Learning, the last before the general election. A number of our articles reflect on key themes in one of the most interesting and least predictable election campaigns of recent times – including university funding, the growing gap between rich and poor, and plans for public spending cuts.


This issue also includes reflection on the future of further education in England, a theme that will attract rather less political interest in the run- up to the election but which, in recent months, has attracted increasing attention from thinkers and commentators. Alison Wolf is among the most prominent. In this issue she further develops her case for the reform of FE, to create a ‘genuinely demand- led’ system in which learners have more power over their learning and colleges have more autonomy in making decisions about what to offer learners. She offers a succinct account of the challenges facing the next government in this area. We also carry a number of pieces on the changing shape of adult education in Wales, with a special focus on further education and work- based learning. In both cases, providers have adapted energetically to a changing policy climate, though, as Cerys Furlong notes, with a review of the costs of administering education in Wales underway, it is important to keep in view the core purposes of education and its wider benefits.


As we look forward to a new UK Parliament, and the likelihood of


further, deeper cuts, whichever party wins, asserting the public value of our work, and making the case across a range of policy territories, looks more important than ever.


Paul Stanistreet Editor – Adults Learning


4 News 7 Commentary


8 It’s a matter of principle


Plans to review the cost of administering education in Wales are welcome, but the promised ‘quick wins’ mustn’t involve a narrowing of the purpose of education or a further move away from the Welsh Assembly Government’s principled commitment to social justice, argues Cerys Furlong


12 Getting better all


the time Work-based learning in Wales has been transformed over the past four years, with providers driving up quality and challenging public perception of its value. Arwyn Watkins describes how they got there


2 ADULTS LEARNING APRIL 2010 14 Ways of working


together better The Welsh Assembly Government has an agenda to transform post-16 education in Wales. Collaboration – rationalising provision and sharing facilities – is at the heart of the change, but the acid test will be whether students, communities and businesses see the benefit, writes John Graystone


16 Tall tales and ripping yarns


As we approach the general election, Britain is as unequal as it has been for at least 40 years. Why, with plenty of resources to go around, does inequality persist, and what can education do to challenge it, asks Danny Dorling


20 Shifting power to the learner


Decades of reform have resulted in a system of further education that treats adults like children, with limited control over the qualifications they choose to pursue. Learning accounts – operating like any other bank account, but used only to pay for learning – would shift power back to the learner and help create a genuinely demand-led system, argues Alison Wolf


“Let individuals decide what learning serves them best, now and for the future. They will do a far better job”


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