Investment in adult learning ‘essential for recovery’
LIFELONG LEARNING With the general election a few weeks away, NIACE has publishing an agenda for lifelong learning, reflecting the range of challenges that the country – and the new government, whatever party forms it – will face and calling for action to create a ‘learning society’. ‘There’s a serious risk that the short-term pressures on public finances will disguise the central importance of lifelong learning in securing community cohesion as well economic competitiveness,’ said NIACE Chief Executive Alan Tuckett. ‘We believe that the failures in the banking sector must not be allowed to deflect the UK from investing in lifelong learning that will help avoid such problems in the future. As a result, NIACE has prepared this agenda for the new government to pave the way to a learning society.’
NIACE recommends that the new government should focus on a number of key principles:
• Inclusivity – NIACE evaluates adult education and training by the extent to which they help those adults who have benefited least from their initial learning and who face particular barriers to study. Special consideration must be given to educational opportunities for older people and the new government should consider the introduction of an older learners’ entitlement.
• Equitable contributions – Building a learning society will require increased investment by everyone – individuals,
The number of people reported as ‘not fully proficient’ at their jobs has risen by 400,000 from 1.3 million in 2005 to 1.7 million in 2009, according to the first National Strategic Skills Audit, commissioned by government and published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES). Nearly one in five of the 80,000 employers surveyed by UKCES said they had some staff who were not fully proficient.
The audit also found that the UK’s growth in highly skilled jobs is one of the lowest in the OECD; and that leadership and management skills and technical skills are in need of particular improvement. The last decade had seen an unprecedented increase in the number of people with qualifications, the report said.
employers and government alike. Public money should not be used to displace existing private-sector spending – it is the job of employers to train staff for their current and anticipated economic activities.
• Range of learning opportunities – The public benefits of education and training are not limited to particular subjects or levels of study. They can be measured through the behaviours and attitudes of adults who identify themselves as learners.
• Building adults’ capabilities – NIACE believes that the new government should introduce a common curriculum framework which would represent the state’s offer to its adult population. This would include measures to build: health capability; financial capability; civic capability; and digital capability.
• Family learning – The capability of adults to be good parents, grandparents or carers is vital to the learning society. Families have more impact on the educational success of children than do schools. NIACE urges the new government to take an expansive approach to family policy in respect of learning by ensuring that the needs of adults are given parity with the learning needs of children.
‘We desperately need a society where there is widespread understanding and confidence that we can learn our way out of our current difficulties, and lay the foundations for a future that values the contributions every single citizen can make to the wellbeing and prosperity of the nation,’ Alan Tuckett said.
However, it was vital for the economic recovery that future skills development needs were identified and prioritised. The benefits of economic growth would only be fully realised through continued investment in skills, it said. ‘There have been some substantial changes in the labour market over the past decade,’ said Chris Humphries, Chief Executive of UKCES.
‘Despite having a more skilled workforce than at any time in our history, we still lag behind many of our major economic competitors. In order to catch up, skills investment needs to connect more to the jobs that need doing now and that will need doing in the future. ‘We need more and better jobs not just to recover from the recession, but to be better than we were before it.’
Prospects for lifelong learning in challenging times, NIACE’s Adult Learners’ Week Policy Conference, takes place in London on 19 May 2010. It focuses on re-framing the priorities for adult learning in the new Parliament at a time of acute financial constraint. For details, go to:
http://www.niace.org.uk/campaigns-events/events/adult-learners-week-policy-conference.
‘These contributions, given the right
support, can lead to vibrant and inclusive communities, entrepreneurial, innovative and successful businesses and public services, and to making the world a better place for our children.’
A third of people who do not receive training from their employers have said that they are likely to use a new right to request training, according to a poll from unionlearn, the learning and skills arm of the TUC. From this month, 11 million employees in Great Britain will have the new right to ask for time away from work to undertake training that they believe will improve their performance and be beneficial to the business. Employers will be able to turn down requests only when there is a sound business reason to do so.
The unionlearn poll found that 42 per cent of workers said that they were very likely or somewhat likely to use the new right to ask for more training from their employer; while 32 per cent of employees who currently receive no training from their employer said that they were very likely or somewhat likely to use the new right to ask for training. Employees aged 18-34 are most
likely to use the new right (60 per cent very likely or somewhat likely), along with employees with a degree (50 per cent very likely or somewhat likely).
“
QUOTE UNQUOTE If we want the
post-compulsory education sector to realise its potential, then the sooner we move to an equitable, learner- responsive system, the better. Central planning has failed over and over again
Alison Wolf, Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, King’s College London
” APRIL 2010 ADULTS LEARNING 5
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