Introduction

Great to join you on “Learning at Work Day” Adult Learners’ Week is a fascinating insight into the sheer breadth and diversity of adult learning. You can all be justly proud of what you are achieving collectively and individually, day after day, week after week, year after year. Indeed, your work forms a perfect alignment with what we in Government are striving to do on a national scale; investing in skills to sustain a competitive, productive economy and build a fairer, more inclusive society.

What we are celebrating this afternoon is, in essence, what widening participation in learning really means. And your commitment and contributions are vital.

Progress made

There can be no doubt that we have made real progress in education and training. There are now more adults involved in learning than ever before, and
they are also engaged at higher levels. The English Local Labour Force Survey, published last month, told us that 77% of adults of working age had participated in learning the preceding month. It is especially encouraging to see increases in the number of older learners – a 7% increase among the over 50’s since 1997 - with resulting benefits for intergenerational and community learning. And learning in our most deprived areas has increased significantly too – from 63% in 2001 to 67% now.

As a nation we are investing more money in this area than ever before. The Learning and Skills Council whose learning participation budget is now £6.3 billion this year, more than the GDP of Iceland – the country not the retailer!.

Challenges

This investment in skills will deliver a triple double dividend; effectively tackling the long term challenges we face on the economy: on social inclusion and on neighbourhood renewal, which all impact on our prosperity and quality of life.

By investing in skills we are working to create the right conditions for economic success in an increasingly competitive world. No less a challenge is to build a society in which everyone, regardless of background, regardless of location or regardless of culture and regardless of age, has the opportunity to develop the skills they need throughout life, to improve their employability and life skills, and to take an active part in society.

The Skills Strategy

We are constantly looking for better ways of working together, getting better consistency of planning and funding and building local capacity. And for this we need you, our partners, both providers and learners.
We are also working across Government to focus help on those that need it most including: people claiming benefits, offenders, people with low skills and others at risk of social exclusion.
We are now working with the LSC and NIACE to draw in ‘more and different’ learners, by promoting the power of learning to change the way people live and work.

We certainly need to better understand what motivates people to learn, what is most useful to them, need to understand better and to know more about all the positive spin-offs they gain from learning. We already recognise that learning can improve people’s confidence, well being and self esteem. And can change attitudes to health, crime, the family, racial tolerance and civic participation. As you know only too well from personal experience, helping people to become aware of their abilities often leads them on to further learning and self fulfilment.

However, before people can continue on their learning journey, they must take the first few difficult steps. We will not tackle the skills gap if we fail to tackle the unacceptably high numbers of adults who lack skills in literacy, numeracy and indeed ICT – increasingly acknowledged the third essential skill for life. The Skills for Life Programme is already making good progress in tackling the problem of poor basic skills amongst adults, but we cannot be complacent. There are still millions of adults in this country in the 21st century who lack the reading and numeracy skills that we now expect of 11 year-olds.

We plan to provide over 3 million flexible learning opportunities, through learndirect and the University For Industry, in ways which suit learners’ individual circumstances. And I am pleased to say that we are well on track to meet our target of improving the literacy and numeracy skills of 750,000 adults by 2004.

ICT is such a powerful tool, enabling more learners to participate in education. E – learning allows people to study at a time, a place and a pace that suits them. E-learning can be delivered in almost any environment and at any time of day and offers a more inclusive, less threatening way to learn.

We have established a network of 7,000 learndirect and UK online centres offering open access to ICT and the Internet, with almost 90% of households within three kilometres of an access point. Learndirect centres offer national certificates in literacy and numeracy, and already more than 6,000 learners have taken tests online.

We have to remove the barriers individuals face in gaining access to skills for employability. We are piloting a new Adult Learning Grant of up to £30 a week, to support full-time learners on low incomes studying for their first Level 2 qualification, and indeed for young adults studying for their first qualification at Level 3.

From September we are also trialling an entitlement to a first full Level 2 qualification, (the equivalent to five good GCSEs) to any adult, around 7-8 million people free of charge, we are offering financial help to those students who need it most, providing the incentive to move on to taking further qualifications. This is revolutionary stuff. We have set an ambitious target of 1 million working adults to achieve a Level 2 qualification by 2006. The Labour Force Survey shows that we are on track, with 260,000 more economically active adults qualified at Level 2 or above than in 2002.

Conclusion

Learning can transform the way we all live and work. Looking at some of the examples from today’s awards underlines the sense of personal triumph in often difficult circumstances, and a clear message from you about the critically important ways in which learning is offered to you, from a learner’s perspective rather than trying to impose structures in an inflexible way.
These Awards promote the power of learning to make a real difference and show that learning can be hugely enriching as well as being enormous fun. By reaching out to new learners, including those who did not see learning as something for them, all today’s winners are making our goal of lifelong learning a reality and I hope the example you have set will inspire and encourage many more to make learning a part of their lives too.

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