The Public Value of adult learning

Who benefits?

[Background] [Audience] [Programme]

Background

Across the world skills are now recognised as a basic component of future prosperity. In the UK, the acquisition and productive deployment of skills have become mainstream policy objectives, most recently through the Leitch Review of Skills. Moreover, as employment is seen as the primary route out of poverty, skills are also accorded a role in combating social exclusion and promoting greater social mobility.

In reality, the relationship between economic competitiveness and social inclusion is more complex.

The argument that a strong economy can support social goals should not disguise the fact that there may be different ways of prioritising investment in learning and skills. For example, tackling low skills is more likely to emphasise equality than productivity, while a focus on high level skills would produce different economic and social results. If we want ‘social goods’ from investment in adult learning, such as better health and wellbeing, improved social cohesion, easier social mobility, or community regeneration, we may need to decide to pursue them explicitly as social goods, even if they don’t immediately impact on our economic competitiveness.

The last decade has seen significant increases in the resources allocated to further education in the UK. And yet figures published by the Learning and Skills Council in March this year reveal that one million adults have been lost to learning in the last two years. For those still wanting to learn as adults there tends to be less choice with employers increasingly in the driving seat, focusing initiatives such as Train to Gain and the Sector Skills Councils on narrow definitions of ‘economically valuable’ skills. And yet for many adult learners the motivation to learn stems from:

Research by the Wider Benefits of Learning Centre has revealed that learning can have a profound impact on adults’ lives:

Learning contributes to ‘social goods’ as well as economic goals. It does so

Public Value
Public Value is an emerging conceptual framework which, applied to the learning and skills sector, attempts to encapsulate a broader recognition of the value of adult learning. Public Value theory was first formulated by the UK scholar Mark Moore, who was concerned that all too often services were ‘hitting the target but missing the point’. In the UK, Public Value is currently being explored by people working in a number of public policy fields including health, policing, culture and sustainable communities, as well as learning and skills. It offers a framework for those involved in providing public services to:

Participants at this joint WEA/NIACE conference will have the opportunity to:

The conference workshops will offer an opportunity to explore dimensions of Public Value in adult learning through case study examples that illustrate:

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Audience

This conference will be of interest to:

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Programme

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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Also in October 2007...

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