Themes and Issues
The themes for Adult Learners' Week 2007 are (follow links for further details):
- Learning at, and for, work - including participation and progression, qualifications and modern foreign languages. 2006 is the European Year of Workers' Mobility.
- Community, citizenship, equality and diversity
- Skills for life - including literacy, language and numeracy learning, ICT, media literacy and financial education
- Arts, culture and creativity
- Learning, health and fitness - including mental health issues, learning in later life and learning for active living
- Learning in a global context - including learning about sustainability, North/South issues, migration, fair trade, and the local and wider environment.
The over-arching theme for 2007 will be older learners.
Learning at, and for, work including participation and progression, qualifications and modern foreign languages
Materials promoting Adult Learners’ Week / Sign Up Now targeted at employers are to be available before the end of the year; most particularly a guide for employers / workplaces on participating in Adult Learners’ Week. For more information please contact Anne Hansen, anne.hansen@niace.org.uk
Progress GB
Valuing the Skills of Refugees and Migrants in the UK
NIACE is the lead partner in Progress GB, an EQUAL Round 2
Development Partnership aiming to address barriers to appropriate
employment for refugees and migrants. The partnership is piloting
and mainstreaming innovative approaches to the following two
objectives:
- Supporting employers to overcome skills shortages by promoting inclusive work practices
- Helping refugees and migrants to develop and adapt their skills for the UK labour market through a range of lifelong learning opportunities.
Findings will be disseminated in Adult Learners’ Week 2007 and
include case studies of refugees involved in the project.
For more information please contact
andrew.button@niace.org.uk
Learning at Work Day Awards
Nominations for the NIACE Adult Learners’ Week, Learning at Work
Day Awards are now closed.
Community, citizenship, equality and
diversity
NIACE’s own work focuses on adult learning, and in particular on
measures to secure more and different learners, in better quality
adult learning of all kinds. Engaging men in learning will continue
to be an issue, particularly those in prison and other secure
settings.
- The Let’s Talk About Money initiative, delivered for Adult Learners’ Week and Sign Up Now, helps prisoners improve their financial literacy skills for life on the outside. For more information please send an email to jo.knight@niace.org.uk
- With Remploy we’ll be running a conference in the run-up to Adult Learners’ Week 2007 on learning, employability and adults with disabilities. This conference will be an opportunity for employers, education and training providers, policy makers and experts on disability and employment for adults to come together and discuss the current policy context and their plans for taking this work forward. More details are available from our development officer, Yola Jacobsen, at yola.jacobsen@niace.org.uk
- Stretch, an arts charity, will work in partnership with the V&A to develop, pilot and evaluate a series of resources that widen access to their collections to offenders who cannot visit and have no internet access. Stretch will liaise with prisons in London, Yorkshire, Manchester, the North East and North West. Resources will include handling boxes, slides, posters and working with visiting artists. For more details please contact Carlotta Goulden at Stretch on 07887 923264 or email stretchme@mac.com . Website www.s-t-r-e-t-c-h.org.uk
Cultural Diversity Day - 19 May 2007
The day aims to raise awareness and understanding between
different cultures, encourage community cohesion and offer
information on the barriers to learning to policy makers.
We hope to produce a free pack for Cultural Diversity Day for Adult
Learners’ Week 2007, to include a toolkit with case studies, a
poster and postcards. You can order both this and other materials by
using this order form - [PDF file]. The materials will also be available to download from the
Adult Learners’ Week website from Spring.
May is also Museums and Galleries’ Month – an ideal starting point
for an exploration of cultural issues. See their website at
www.mgm.org.uk
Skills for life
As well as including literacy, language, numeracy and ICT
learning, this theme encompasses media literacy, financial literacy
and ESOL.
- Two booklets are available which offer information to providers
wishing to promote media literacy to their adult learners. If you
want to deliver Media Literacy activities as part of Adult Learners’
Week, why not order a copy of these free books? You’ll find these
materials
listed on this order form - [PDF file].
- ‘And Now Press the Red Button’ is a guide to media literacy, what it is and why we need to know more about it.
- ‘Getting inside the box’ is a toolkit for providers wishing to run a media literacy activity.
- TV Clubs is a brand new collaboration between NIACE and Channel 4,
to launch in Spring 2007. TV Clubs aim to:
- encourage a more critical, insightful opinion of what is being watched
- foster a better understanding of media literacy
- learn from fellow club members’ interpretations of programmes
- enjoy some of the best or worst TV around, with friends and colleagues.
- If you would like to involve your learners in TV Clubs please send
an email to tvclubs@niace.org.uk or call on 07917 574923.
NIACE will also produce a users’ guide to the TV clubs as part of January’s Sign Up Now campaign. Please order your copy using this order form - [PDF file]. - If you haven’t already, why not visit our Spondoolies e-forum, the discussion page for all those engaged in financial learning for adults? You can talk to other practitioners, find out what is going on, read reports of other people's events and much more. See www.spondoolies.org.uk
- ESOL will be an important theme for Adult Learners’ Week 2007. We’ll be posting updates on the website and in the Spring issue of the newsletter.
Arts, culture and creativity
Inspired By is an annual competition run by the V&A Museum, the
Manchester Art Gallery and Tyne & Wear Museums to highlight the
artistic talents of adult learners. Over the last few years hundreds
of pieces of new art have been inspired by the museums’ paintings,
textiles, sculptures and jewellery and displayed to the public next
to the object which inspired their creation.
Awards are made to outstanding pieces, and the most popular entry
from the previous year is awarded the People's Prize, voted for by
visitors who visit the display.
If you run an arts-based course why not arrange a visit to a museum
taking part in Inspired By and encourage your adult learners to take
part? The closing dates are between 16 February and 2 March 2007
(see individual museums for details).
Participating museums are:
V&A Contact Emmanuelle Cirier on 0207 942 2533, email
e.cirier@vam.ac.uk
Tyne and Wear Museums Sophie Robinson on 0191 277 2297, email
sophie.robinson@twmuseums.org.uk
Manchester Art Gallery Meg Lewis-Crosby on 0161 235 8855, email
m.lewis-crosby@manchester.gov.uk
Learning, health and fitness
including mental health issues, learning in later life and
learning for active living
The work of the Wider Benefits of Learning Centre at the Institute
of Education in London has shown that learning is good for your
health, your self-esteem and your employability. Participation in
adult learning prolongs your active life, for example, and research
has shown that engaging in learning improves the likelihood of
adults giving up smoking by 13%. Learning is also a route to
combating depression and helping to tackle mental health issues.
One in Four
One in Four is a stunning collection of poetry, personal
testimony and artwork, written and illustrated by those who know
from their own experience about mental health difficulties. It is
essential reading for those practitioners planning activities and
courses for mental health users in September.
To receive a copy of One in Four please use our
order form - [PDF file].
Learning in a global context
including learning about sustainability, North/South issues,
migration, fair trade, and the local and wider environment.
NIACE would like to see a range of activities taking place during
Adult Learners’ Week under this fifth broad theme. Why not encourage
learners and potential learners to engage in events about
sustainability, North/South issues, migration, fair trade, the
environment and other ‘global’ issues?