Supporting more older people into learning
Last Friday, to celebrate the European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between the Generations, NIACE and Age UK put on a conference entitled We live and learn: active ageing in the community and workplace.
The conference brought together a range of people interested in learning for, and with, older people – older people now being 50+, bitter pill to swallow! Delegates were an eclectic group of people from adult learning providers, carers groups, health charities and IT specialists. They had the chance to hear from MEP Mary Honeyball, speakers from BT who were hosting the conference, adult learning specialists Age UK and NIACE.
The main presentation in the morning was from Professor Stephen McNair, on the boosted sample added to the NIACE Adult Participation in Learning Survey this year. It was an excellent presentation which led to many, many questions about the engagement of older people in learning – the why, what, who questions. The final report will be launched by NIACE on 19 November at a European Conference in Brussels and will also be available on the NIACE website.
The delegates were particularly interested in talking about the impact on older learners of the changes to provision, in funding, in delivery and organisation, and in the area of self-organised learning. How do we ensure we engage those who have least access to learning – maybe because of class or poverty, disability or caring responsibilities, or maybe because they haven’t yet got the ‘bug’ for learning and can’t see what is in it for them? How do we create and respond to demands from older learners? How do we deal with digital issues, when all departments are going ‘digital by default’, with the continuing digital divide and with the arrival of Universal Credit? And most importantly, how do we persuade policy makers of the central importance of learning to support healthy, engaged and feisty older people?
Right now, NIACE is also refreshing its resources on learning opportunities for older people in care settings – including a film, as well as a report and a pack of support materials, which are all available for free online. Commissioned to do so by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), in light of policy changes and key research published, we hope that updating these resources will help raise awareness of the benefits of learning for older people, their carers and families. We also hope it will encourage and support all care providers to extend and enhance learning opportunities for older people.
You can contribute to this work by sharing examples of good existing learning opportunities for older people in care settings. Just complete this form and send it to Emily.Jones@niace.org.uk by Wednesday 31 October 2012.
