Lifelong learning at the heart of Labour's vision for the future

I'd like to pay tribute to John Baillie. He saw the value and importance of FE, moved up ranks, made a real difference and transformed lives.

Grateful today for rare opportunity to say what I think it is all about, my vision.

Back in 2002 when I was given the Adult Skills Brief it felt as though I'd been sent to the DfES equivalent of Siberia!

A long chilly exile lay ahead with little hope of light or air. Making skills ‘sexy' seemed one job too far even for a new, enthusiastic and yes young Minister.

How things changed on Monday of last week. The Chancellor joined the Secretary of State in launching our transformed apprenticeships programme.

On Thursday the Prime Minister confirmed our intention to offer all adults a tuition-free first level 2 qualification and this young Minister's head is covered in grey hairs. More importantly lifelong learning is back as a central plank of Labour's vision for an aspirational, fair 21st Century Britain.

Skills are indeed getting sexier and I am proud of the work we have done together on Success for All, the Skills Strategy and much needed reform of 14-19 education.

Ideas became initiatives, initiatives strategies, We now need a period of delivery which transforms lifelong learning from a concept into a reality in every family, every workplace and every community throughout this country.

My views and hopes for the future come from speaking to my constituents, meeting numerous learners and employers in every region and exchanges with those on the front line as education leaders and teachers.

First, a definition. Lifelong learning is frequently not presented as part of the educational canvas which is for those over 19.

Lifelong learning spans from the cradle to the grave. It is the modernised welfare state in action empowering and liberating individual citizens, building the capacity and activism of communities - strengthening the economic and social foundation of our society.

It is a vision which has the capacity to touch every life and every community and the dynamic to accelerate the pace of progress towards social justice and sustained economic success.

A vision which not only encompasses the newly born baby and 'night class' 90 year old - but binds them together in an overarching mission to recreate the notion of intergenerational advance as an alternative to intergenerational deprivation.

"1 want my child to do better than I did' should be a statement of intent shared by all backgrounds and postcodes, not just the middle class.

Those who argue this has been a timid centrist Government have clearly not examined the reforms which are extending opportunities at every stage of our education system:

SureStart, Universal nursery provision, Primary literacy/numeracy - excellence + employment, Every child matters/Children's' Bill

Secondary reform: Specialist status, Excellence in cities/Leadership incentive grant, Key Stage 3

Connexions: 14-19, 14-16 flexibility, Tomlinson, EMAs/Primarolo review, Apprenticeships: pre to foundation degree and now adults.

FE: Success for All, 19 % real terms increase in 3 years

HE: World class + widening participation

Establishment of LSC

Adult Basic Skills, New Deal for skills, Learndirect, Employer Training Pilots, Level 2 Entitlement, Sector Skills Councils, Trade Union Learning Fund, Adult and Community Learning.

This represents a combination of reform and investment in only 7 years which has the capacity to be truly transformational,

However, its fragility - risk of underachieving if we fail to join up - fail to capture and ignite the dream which can be lifelong learning for all. Too often our system has been planned stage by stage, institution by institution, sector by sector.

We are only now beginning to link the support SureStart offers babies with the skill needs of their parents. Schools can no longer afford to be silent on the rights and responsibilities of parents. The Building Schools for the Future programme and Strategic Area Reviews must have a greater synergy in the future.

HE students and employers who work in local companies are potentially an army of mentors who could make a real difference to our schools and colleges.

We will also fail if we sink in the swamp that I label False Choices.

Those who claim schools are incapable of improvement due to the social background of pupils or others who believe family negativity towards education can be overcome by quality pedagogy and an improved curriculum alone.

Those who want no accountability at the front line and others who would smother the front line with red tape and regulation.

Those who claim equity and excellence are contradictory rather then interdependent objectives.

Those who claim a commitment to skills but not qualifications.

Those who want the country to choose between graduates and apprentices.

Those who suggest lifelong learning has to be either a social or economic policy.

My vision is that we strive for a society where lifelong learning permeates the culture of every community.

Learning communities in the tested areas and elsewhere are about raising the status and relevance of learning so it begins to appear as a flicker on every radar screen.

They are about recognising the interdependence of reforming the system and transforming aspirations.

Yes, the best schools, colleges, training providers and universities.

But also motivated pupils, students and families.

A demand led system must be the goal for citizens as well as employers.

Many people in our country do not share the middle class certainty that ‘education is good for you’.

We must make the case for education to the generation of kids who success as being through Pop Idol or celebrity status, or worse drugs.

To the generation of adults who left education at 16 and lost interest long before

So what are the benefits of gaining skills and qualifications and how do we sell it?

Your salary: The average wage full-time per hour for someone with no qualifications is £7.10. For people with a Level 2 qualification the average goes up to £8.80 an hour. For those with Level 3 it's up to £10.40 on average, and for graduates it's over £14.50 an hour.

What's more, these wage gaps never really get any narrower as we get older - in fact, often they get wider. So if you don't get qualified you're not just losing out now, but you're also going to accumulate less and less in the way of earnings over time compared to your better qualified colleagues. Experience might count for a lot, but the figures show that it's qualifications that really make the difference in terms of hard earnings.

Your chance of being unemployed: if you're under 30 and in the workforce, you're 20% more likely to have a job if you're qualified to Level 2, compared to people without qualification

And again, the benefits of education and training persist over the entire working lifetime. As a man over 50, you're considerably more likely to be employed if you have at least an NVQ2 equivalent. And for women, it's even more striking - around 80% in employment with NVQ2, compared to around 50% of those with no qualifications

Generally speaking, the higher the qualification you have the better things are for you, and this is true with employment rates too. The higher qualified you are, the greater your chances of employment.

Your health: for example, one study found that the proportion of people reporting good health rises from 17% of those with no qualifications to 35% for those with degree level qualifications.

And these are not just simple differences between graduates and non-­graduates either. We see a clear sliding-scale effect, where the higher level of qualifications we have the better health we enjoy. For example, numbers of people suffering from obesity falls from over 20% of people with no qualifications, through 15% for intermediate qualifications down to below 10% of those with highest levels of qualifications.

Your life expectancy: mortality rates amongst the adult population are closely related to occupational group, and this means they're related to educational level.

On top of this, not only are mortality rates much higher for those in lower skill groups, but the rate of decline in mortality rates has also been much slower for the less well educated. In the highest skill group, mortality rates fell by 44% between 1971 and 1992, compared to only a 10% fall within the lowest skill group

Your kids: there's also a lot of evidence that your children's chances are better if you are well qualified. We are working to change this - children should all have same life chances, after all, regardless of who their parents are - but at the moment it's a fact of life that the better qualified you are the better qualified your children are likely to become.

And that goes beyond evidence of the benefits of university education. Look at people in manual occupations, too. If you're qualified to Level 2 or better in a manual job, your children are more than twice as Iikely to be in full-time education at age 16 than if you've got no qualifications.

Other benefits to society and the economy: on top of all these benefits to the individual, there are benefits to the rest of us every time someone gets better qualified and moves up the skills ladder.

For example, take crime. If we look at young men under 30, those who had no qualifications by the time they were 17 are 3 times as likely to offend as their contemporaries who had managed to get some qualifications.

And of course, productivity is strongly linked to skills. Evidence shows that a 5 percentage point increase in numbers of workers trained in an industry gives a rise in productivity of 4% per worker.

And in the future....

In the economy of the next 10 years, high level skills and qualifications will be more in demand than ever before. From just over 4 million graduates in the workplace we'll have gone to nearly 8 million by 2010, while the demand for unqualified employees will have gone the opposite way, from over 6 million in 1991 to just over 2 million in work with no qualifications by 2010

The benefits of acquiring higher level skills are clear and undeniable at all levels - and the returns are real, measurable and substantial. No one should be in any doubt about that. And we must get this message across

I want everyone in the country to know the dignity of self-improvement.

Whether it be the young apprentice from BT who spoke first at last week's Transforming Apprenticeship event.

Or the two 55 year old women I met last year in an adult literacy class whose husbands and children didn't know they were unable to read.

Or the 50 year old redundant steelworker re-training after 30 years to be a gas fitter.

The dignity of self-improvement should be the new manifestation of equality of opportunity for all.

I have made it clear that adult and community learning will continue to have a vital role in building a lifelong learning society.

Naturally, it must be subject to accountability and audit like any other Public Service.

However, learning for leisure and pleasure is distinct and this should be reflected in the workload of teachers and the experience of learners. I intend making announcements in the autumn which will get rid of pointless exams and assessment in the area of learning.

Equally, I intend to get tough on poor quality ACL provision which is being highlighted by too many inspection reports. Insisting pensioners doing aerobics are subject to an assessment is "bonkers", but ensuring that they receive high quality instruction should be non-negotiable.

As lifelong learning reaches parts of our communities we have never been before, we will have to get smarter in our approach.

These learners will not go through the door of their own children's school, let alone the FE college. Learndirect centres will be for someone else, economic inactivity a permanent state.

Traditional education and training providers will have to learn to engage with voluntary and community sector organisation.

They will frequently be best placed through tenants and resident groups, community centres, pubs to use relationships of trust to introduce Lifelong Learning in a subtle non threatening way.

I am pleased the LSC under is now taking their relationship with the voluntary sector far more seriously.

A similar example is the success union learning representatives have had in reaching out to non traditional learners in the workplace.

This is possible because of an unspoken relationship of Trust which can overcome the inevitable barriers and fears.

I believe genuinely that lifelong learning's time has come. It is the means by which we achieve national success in the global economy.

It is our most powerful tool as we seek to smash intergenerational deprivation.

It is the state being on the side of the citizen, equipping people with the skills to fell a sense of power and control in a world of perpetual change and insecurity.

In 21st Century the concept of employability for life will replace both the job for life and in some communities intergenerational economic activity.

Lifelong learning will play a crucial role in public health policy as people live longer and seek personal development opportunities in the 70's , 80's and 90's.

Our ambition must be clear. All young people to remain in some form of education or training at the very least until 18.

A personal development portfolio for all citizens which they can record their learning achievements literally from cradle to grave.

A learning passport which supports peoples membership of society rather than their opt out from society.

Personalised learning which at every age organising the system around the needs of each individual.

In the context adult learning /FE has much to teach schools.

We have put the building blocks in place:

Our time has come - let us seize the opportunity - shrug off not only the Cinderella status but the Cinderella mindset.

Lifelong learning at the centre of our vision for a Britain where no citizen, no family and no community is left behind. I believe that would be a society that John Baillie would be proud of.

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