The tip of the adult learning iceberg
Like many people at NIACE, I’m currently reading lots of Adult Learners’ Week nominations, as part of the short-listing process. It’s one of the highlights of our year; privileged as we are to read so many testimonies to the impact learning has on people’s lives, their families, workplaces and communities. We know that the 1,400 or so nominations we get, mainly individual, are the tip of the iceberg. Statistics tell us there are millions of people involved in adult learning every year, and the stories we highlight each May are exceptional.
For a change, I’m reading some project nominations this year, more specifically, those ones with a focus on learning for work. Although it would not be appropriate to comment on the sixty or so nominations I have just read, one thing that strikes me is the number of people touched by these exceptional projects.
As you may know, the project nomination form asks for the number of learners who benefited from the project in 2012. Although this is not a criterion for selection, it is a useful piece of information. We get to read nominations from tiny social enterprises, large supermarket chains, partnerships of colleges, local authorities, trades unions, job centres and independent training providers, charities in all sectors, awarding bodies. All of which are doing crucial work. Funding comes from the Skills Funding Agency, or employers’ own pockets, or charitable trusts. Awarding bodies are heavily involved and clearly supportive.
Some outstanding projects are small scale and bespoke, their successes remarkable, with individual lives transformed and employment prospects enhanced. They are great to read.
But alongside these this year, I noticed the number of large scale projects where thousands of people are helped, particularly those who have benefited least from the education system to date. The spur is often redundancy or its threat. There is a real sense of people working together across organisations to help people adapt to change.
It is a big challenge when you consider the millions out of work, the 40% of employers who don’t invest in any learning and the current challenges that learning providers and charities are themselves facing as organisations.
But the sixty nominations I read were from projects that provided learning for over 20,000 people in 2012 from all over England. We are grateful to all nominators for highlighting their individual successes, the quality and impact of their work, but also the sheer scale of the achievement of adult educators across the country.
20,000 is just the tip of the adult learning iceberg.
