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Commentary - May 2006

It's a vision thing

Cynics might dismiss Adult Learners’ Week as a series of posh-frock events, but at its core it is about raising demand for learning, says RACHEL THOMSON

Lisa Higginson was struggling with depression when she started on a family learning course organised by the Lifelong Learning Service in Tower Hamlets several years ago. Since then, Lisa has completed further courses and voluntary work placements: ‘My eyes were opened to the skills I had as a parent – budgeting on a low income, multi-tasking and time management. I began to value myself and knew I could go further’. In September 2003 she passed her Access to Nursing course and Lisa – now aged 31 – is currently studying for a midwifery degree at City University. ‘Adult education stimulated me to develop and continue my learning to a high standard … I am contributing to society with my much-needed professional, key-worker skills,’ she says.

Lisa is just one of over 100 individuals who will be receiving Adult Learners’ Week Awards this month. Dozens more families, groups of learners and projects which have opened doors to adult learners will be celebrated too. The testimonies of the learners we celebrate during the week reflect the richness, challenges and breadth of adults’ experiences as learners. In libraries, prisons, parks, community halls, universities, shopping centres, colleges, museums and workplaces, between 20 and 26 May, thousands upon thousands of people will be learning, exploring shared enthusiasms, exercising their curiosities and working together as active citizens.

Now in its fifteenth year, Adult Learners’ Week is based on a simple formula, copied in nearly 50 countries across the world. Existing learners – young, old and in all their diversity – inspire others to give learning a go. The key messages – that learning is good for adults’ health, self-esteem and employability – are backed by solid evidence. There is plenty of passion for learning once it is unlocked and one person’s confidence spills over on to others.

On a national level, the Week has the backing of the DfES and the European Social Fund, and NIACE is grateful for the funding and support it receives from a raft of diverse organisations. NIACE co-ordinates Adult Learners’ Week each year and ‘co-ordinates’ is absolutely the right description because it is a festival based firmly on the principle of letting a thousand flowers bloom.

What’s right for learners in rural Dorset may – or may not – be what will work on Teesside. And whilst 10 per cent of local Adult Learners’ Week activities in 2005 focused on literacy, language and numeracy, a visit to our online calendar – www.alw.org.uk/calendar – reveals that this year sessions will range from belly-dancing to dream workshops, from on-line shopping to a trip to hear the dawn chorus, from creative book-making to an older women in film study day, and from foundation food hygiene to the internet for beginners.

Raising demand

Cynics might dismiss Adult Learners’ Week as a fluffy series of posh-frock events – a self congratulatory fiesta where the great and the good of the adult learning world slap each others’ backs, feeling good at having invited some learners from the grassroots to the party. But, at its core, Adult Learners’ Week is about raising demand for learning and it epitomises NIACE’s mission to engage more and different adults in better quality learning of all kinds.

It encourages under-represented groups, including the low-skilled, unemployed, low paid and those with few or no qualifications, to participate in learning and spread positive motivational messages about learning. The week also challenges providers to engage the most isolated and excluded learners – such as residents of secure settings; people with health problems, disabilities and/or learning difficulties; refugees; minority ethnic communities; and older people – in activities that develop social and employment skills, confidence and ambition.

And, what’s more, it works. Of the callers to learndirect during Adult Learners’ Week 2005 who agreed to be contacted two months later, one-third were from minority ethnic groups and just over half were working, with one in six unemployed, one in eight returners and one in 10 in education. One in three had no qualifications or fewer than five A-C GCSEs or equivalent. Over half had done little or no training in the last three years. Two thirds of the callers had taken some action since phoning during the Week and 83 per cent of these had applied for, or enrolled on, a course or looked for, or found, work in the eight weeks since.

Adult Learners’ Week crucially makes a difference at other levels, too. Ministers meet learners and hear at first hand what it’s like to take the first step on a learning journey and, each year, the findings of NIACE’s participation survey tell policy-makers who isn’t learning. According to one stakeholder interviewed by independent researchers in 2005, ‘the political impact is priceless’ and this year we’ll be capitalising on this by encouraging a Big Conversation about what a fairer funding settlement for adult learning might look like. The FE White Paper will be its focus: Are we investing enough? Is the balance right? What should the priorities be?

Media coverage means that adult learning is promoted more widely, encouraging others to become involved, and many learners gain the tools to move forward, receiving information, advice and guidance about further learning opportunities. The week gives learning providers the forum to work collaboratively or try something new and the platform to extend their reach and profile. In fact, Adult Learners’ Week is a gestalt entity: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Across Europe, there’s a determination to embed lifelong learning and this is needed if the Lisbon Goals – to make the EU the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world and a socially inclusive community – are to become a reality. The learners we celebrate, and engage with, during the Week are key ambassadors for the realisation of that vision. Happy fifteenth Adult Learners’ Week – may there be many more.

Rachel Thomson is Senior Campaigns Officer, NIACE  

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