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Inclusive Learning - Ten Years On
| Date: | Tuesday 19 September 2006 |
| Venue: | The Resource Centre, London |
| Ref: | C13-43/09/06 |
| Fee*: | £225 - Statutory/Private
Organisations £175 - Voluntary Organisations £175 - NIACE Members for the applicant and £125 - for subsequent Member applicants from the same organisation *(includes lunch, tea/coffee): |
[Background] [Audience] [Programme]
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Background & Aims
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of the Further Education Funding Council’s influential Inclusive Learning report of the Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities Committee chaired by the late Professor John Tomlinson. Summer 2006 sees the publication of the results of the consultation on recommendations of the Strategic Review of the LSC’s Planning and Funding of Provision for Learning with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities, Through Inclusion to Excellence. In December 2006 the new duty on the public sector to promote disability equality comes into force.
The aim of this conference is to give staff, managers and learners in post-16 education an opportunity to re-visit the key messages of the Inclusive Learning report, ten years on. Mindful of the new Disability Equality duties on the public sector we will look at developments in adult learning for disabled learners including curriculum design, a chance to reflect on practice, consider quality, celebrate and look to the future.
“By ‘inclusive learning’ we mean the greatest degree of match or fit between the individual learner’s requirements and the provision that is made for them.” Inclusive Learning - FEFC, 1996
Inclusive Learning stressed the importance of:
 | not focussing on what a person with learning difficulties and/or disabilities cannot do but seeing them first and foremost as a learner |
| listening to what disabled learners have to say about how they want to learn and on which kind of courses they want to learn |
| the whole organisation working in ways that matches learning to the individual’s needs, for all learners including people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities |
The keynote speakers for the day were both involved in the work of the FEFC committee that produced the Inclusive Learning report. They will look at what has happened in post-16 education over the last ten years, the influence of the Inclusive Learning report, other key policy developments and disability rights legislation, and their relevance now.
The workshops will be an opportunity to hear directly from disabled learners and staff about their own experiences of inclusive learning where they learn and work. Delegates will have the opportunity to focus on inclusive learning in their own organisations - what works well, what more needs to be done and how can inclusive learning be taken forward? There will also be an opportunity to identify key messages for managers, local LSCs and policy makers.
The conference is being run as part of the Sign Up Now campaign, and is part-funded through ESF to enable more and different adults to access learning opportunities. The ESF is a European Union initiative that promotes employment opportunities for all. Since 2000, ESF has helped over 2 million people in England to improve their employability and skills. ESF opportunities are helping unemployed and disadvantaged people, including people with disabilities or health conditions, to gain skills and connect with the workplace. In England, ESF is investing £4 billion in employment and skills projects in 2000- 2006. See www.esf.gov.uk for more information.
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Audience
Staff, managers and disabled learners from colleges, adult and community education, work based learning, the health sector, social services and voluntary organisations.
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Programme
| 10:00 | Arrival and Registration (Tea/Coffee available) |
| 10:30 | Welcome and Introduction to the
Day Conference chair Sir William Stubbs, Chairman Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust and former Chief Executive of the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) 1992 - 1996. |
| 10:45 | Keynote Address - Inclusive
Learning, the journey so far The importance of a whole organisational approach. How Inclusive Learning apprentices of ten years ago, now in senior college positions, are carrying the work forward. Toni Beck, Director of Learner Experience and Quality Improvement at Oaklands College and former member of the FEFC Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities Committee |
| 11:05 | Workshops: morning session
1) Access to Community and Employment* |
| 12:20 | Comfort Break |
| 12:30 | Keynote address - What’s the
point of Adult Learning? Why is adult learning important? What are the concerns about provision from NIACE? What should we do to improve things? Dr Peter Lavender OBE, Deputy Director, NIACE. Current chair of the LSC Learning difficulties and/or disabilities sub-group of the Equality and Diversity committee and formerly advisor to the FEFC committee for the Inclusive Learning report. |
| 13:00 | Lunch ArtsPEP project (Arts Participation for Employability Project), Warwickshire * A lunchtime screening of “In Our Shoes”, a DVD developed by people with learning difficulties about their experiences of employment and the barriers they have come up against. Followed by an informal discussion led by Lawrence Storey-Brown, project co-ordinator. |
| 14:00 | Workshops: afternoon session
(repeated) Workshop 1 different from am 1) ‘Back on Track’ – The
Shaw Trust * |
| 15:30 | Plenary Session - taking the
work forward Viv Berkeley, NIACE Development Officer, Learning difficulties and Kathryn James NIACE Development Officer, Learning and Health |
| 16:00 | Close of Conference (Tea/Coffee available) |
* ESF-supported provision
This programme is correct at the time of going to press. The organisers reserve the right to make changes to the published programme in the event of one or more of the advertised speakers being unable to attend. Delegates will have no claim against NIACE in respect of such changes.
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