More, Different and Better

Today, NIACE is holding a summit with key stakeholders to consider next steps in proving the positive impact of adult learning and making sense of the varied picture on ‘what counts as evidence’. This event is a crucial part of NIACE’s focus on impact throughout October, in order to refresh the debate for current times.

As you would expect, NIACE is very clear about the positive impact of adult learning: it’s as fundamental to the core of our work as our charitable objectives. Yet over the 91 years of NIACE’s existence things have been tough for learners and those promoting learning – just a quick look in the NIACE archive throws up examples of the numerous struggles learners have faced over the years, not least before, during, and after the world wars.

Today’s struggle is different. How do we best protect both public and private investment in learning and skills for adults at a time of economic crisis? And how can we preserve the fundamental ethos to learn for work and skills and for personal and social purposes at a time of increasingly squeezed budgets?

Several years ago we looked in depth at a potential system for learning and skills that balanced public and private investment and made a series of recommendations for a long term system.  Much of the work is still relevant, although the context has changed, and as we head into another review of government spending we know the tectonic plates for learning and skills may change even if the details aren’t yet clear. Irrespective of how and when, we can be sure that there will be renewed calls to analyse the returns from public investment of learning and skills for adults.

Let’s put this in context. Our recently released annual participation survey yet again shows a fall in adult participation – only 38% of adults have participated in learning in the last three years, a fall of 4 percentage points in just two years. Add to this the perfect storm of systems changes that will impact negatively on the levels of participation; the demographic changes of people needing to work for longer; and the residential care crisis impact on both budgets and changing needs. We need more than ever to argue the case for adult learning in every possible way.

We are really clear at NIACE that we need to weave a path through the two extreme positions of either a) wanting a precise financial figure for every pound of investment in adult learning or b) saying that some things are impossible to value. Neither position does our sector any favours. We have to be able to show the impact and value of adult learning in all its ways.

NIACE has various approaches for doing this, but learners are always at the heart of our work and their stories provide the backdrop for the more detailed analysis on impact:

• Adult Learners’ Week takes the inspiring stories of our award winners straight to the politicians and decision makers, both on a national and local level. During 2012 a group of learners spoke directly with John Hayes MP (then Minister of State for FE, Skills and Lifelong Learning) and politicians attended events across the country. Nominations for 2013 awards are now open, which will provide us with fresh evidence of the positive impact of learning.
• Our work with Adult and Community Learning Fund projects on social return on investment analyses will produce final reports later this autumn. This work has enabled us to draw together themes of wider outcomes and to focus on taking this information from the micro project level to the macro level. Other recent NIACE research has tested the subjective wellbeing model on four of these domains: health, employment, volunteering and social relationships and has found a sound link in terms of value.
• We’re supporting the Community Learning Trust pilots on behalf of Government, which includes examining how well-targeted investment of public funding releases additional resources for learning locally.
• We are working with a group of councils on behalf of the Local Government Association to demonstrate the impact of doing things differently for learning and skills at a local level and identifying the systems blocks which hinder even more effective impact.
• This month, we are also holding two seminars on impact and further Social Return on Investment (SROI) training.

There are many ways of shaping the debate around proving the positive impact of adult learning and we need your help. Colleagues at Hertfordshire Council have just sent through details of a partnership project which set up a social enterprise to provide supported learning and employment for people recovering from long-term mental health problems. The participants are now earning a wage for their services and the social enterprise is ready to begin selling goods.

Sharing examples like this will help us define what counts as evidence. So if you can help, please get in touch. You can leave a comment below, join @NIACEhq on Twitter using the hashtag #impact, or email your evidence to jenny.sherrard@niace.org.uk.