Organisation and Policy: Influencing Public Policy: Archive
Making Learning Work
A NIACE Briefing to Learning Works (The Kennedy Report)
Learning Works is the most important statement to have appeared in recent years of what needs to be done to close the learning divide in Britain today and points the way for further education (FE) to become the inclusive service it needs and ought to be.
The Widening Participation Committee was established by the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) to advise on the nature of under-participation in further education and to make recommendations on how participation might be increased and improved. The committee was chaired by Helena Kennedy QC and was widely representative, including Judith Summers, Chair of NIACE Executive. Evidence was taken from a range of agencies and organisations both within and beyond education.
The committee defined its brief widely, encompassing access, success and progression for those currently left outside or failed by the current system. Equally it defined further education broadly as all provision made within sixth forms, colleges, LEAs, voluntary and community organisations and included further education provision made in the higher education sector, by employers and trade unions and by independent training providers.
The interim report, Pathways to Success, made two recommendations to FEFC for immediate implementation:
 | funding of Strategic Partnership pilots |
| introduction of a New Learning Pathway for Adults |
This NIACE briefing highlights the key messages and recommendations of the report. It is not intended as an alternative to reading the report itself which provides full discussion of the committee's analysis and recommendations.
The Principal Messages of the Report
Learning is the common foundation for prosperity and social cohesion
The report contains a persuasive statement of the case that learning is the key to
economic prosperity and social cohesion. In addition to such compelling utilitarian
arguments, the principle of equity is invoked to condemn the inadequacy of the policies
which have achieved significant growth in learning post-16 but failed to include those who
experience social and economic disadvantage. It concludes that the priority must be for
all to have the opportunity to achieve at level 3, which the committee sees as the
essential basis for the creation of a self-perpetuating learning society. Public funding
should be redistributed towards those with less success in earlier learning, moving
towards equity of funding in post-16 education.
Learning for life and learning for work are seen as inseparable with many of the capabilities needed for success at work being the same as those needed for success in personal, social and community life. It is clearly acknowledged that these capabilities should be learned and developed in a wide variety of ways over a lifetime.
FE is at the heart of the matter
It is argued that the broad church of further education is the least understood and celebrated portion of the education world. Offering first choice and second chance education to young people, further education also has a diversity of curriculum offer and delivery mechanisms which enable it to reach adult learners at work, at home and in community settings. With a variety of starting points, and an impressive variety of progression routes, it is further education which can address the enormous backlog of underachievement and provide a comprehensive lifetime learning service for all. Good practice abounds but is not consistently applied. Providers will need to bring this expertise centre stage and make it available to all learners and in all learning programmes.
The introduction of competition into publicly-funded further education has been accompanied by improved responsiveness to learner needs but also by wasteful duplication as some providers, responding to performance related funding, compete for those learners most likely to succeed. The present situation, where independent providers are steered mainly by national arrangements, does not enable strategic goals to be identified and achieved at local level. Progress requires collaboration between providers and other stakeholders locally to agree strategic priorities and operational approaches.
Stimulation of demand
The power of the media and of new technology must be harnessed in a concerted national effort to stimulate a mass demand for learning. The report concludes that this must be supported by an entitlement for all to initial information and, thereafter, the provision of guidance at all stages of the learning process and for progression. A national framework for credit will also be essential in developing the flexibility needed to engage underrepresented learners. Critical to unleashing demand for learning. The report concludes that this must be supported by an entitlement for all to initial information and, thereafter, the provision of guidance at all stages of the learning process and for progression. A national framework for credit will also be essential in developing the flexibility needed to engage underrepresented learners. Critical to unleashing demand will be the provision of a fair and transparent system of student financial support which removes the significant financial barriers to access for many underrepresented groups.
This Briefing is continued with a Summary of Main Recommendations
Page last updated June, 1999