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Latest News: June 2005

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Making a difference to adults with mental health difficulties

A report – Mental Health and Social Exclusion - from the Social Exclusion Unit in June 2004 recommended an increase in the number of adults with mental health problems accessing adult, further and higher education. NIACE is holding a conference in Marble Arch, London on Friday July 8th, to look at progress to date towards meeting these recommendations, and to discuss what needs to be done in the next year to take this work forward.

The Adult Education and Mental Health: Supporting Social Inclusion through Adult Learning Conference will address the fact that adults with mental health problems are among the most excluded groups in society - with fewer than a quarter in employment and many of whom spend much of their time in isolation which is a significant risk factor in deteriorating mental health and suicide.

Kathryn James, NIACE Development Officer for Learning and Health, said:

“Adult learning plays an important part in combating the exclusion that people experiencing mental health difficulties face. This is not just because it improves employment prospects but because it can also help build confidence, provide meaningful activity and offer a place where people make friends. Consequently participation in adult learning can have beneficial impacts on mental health and general well-being. Adult education providers can also play an important part in challenging the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health difficulties.”

She continued, “As one learner said, ‘Coming to college saved my life. Two years ago I was on anti-depressants, drinking too much and taking drugs, and I couldn't bear to leave the house. My family didn't think I would make it to my 30th birthday. But here I am, getting a qualification, I've made new friends and I feel great.’”

Kathryn James ended, “This conference will celebrate the work that has been done over the past year and provide an opportunity to find out about some of the positive work that is being done by adult learning providers around the country. It will also look at what still needs to be done in the forthcoming year if we are to really make a difference to the life chances of adults with mental health needs.”

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Can adult education change the world?

As the leaders of the world’s major industrial nations gather in Scotland for the G8 summit in July, hundreds of thousands of people will take to the streets demanding an end to poverty and unfair trade.

The June issue of Adults Learning considers adult education’s historic link with mass movements for social and political change, and asks what its current mission should be with regard to large-scale mobilisations of public opinion such as that organised by the Make Poverty History campaign.

Adult education was central to the concerns of the working class movements that emerged with the Industrial Revolution and, in one form or another, it has maintained its close links ever since. In the view of many educators, however, this historic link has grown rather frayed – at a time when the concerns of organisations opposing world poverty and globalisation appear to be reaching the mainstream of British political culture as never before.

Writing in this special issue of NIACE’s flagship journal, John Grayson, of Northern College, sets out the history of adult education’s involvement with social movements and weighs up its future prospects, while Jane Thompson, NIACE’s Principal Research Officer, presents a robust case for adult education linked to social action. The four articles that follow provide examples, drawn from Sierra Leone, Ireland, Brazil and South Africa, of popular education programmes linked to struggles for social and political change which have made significant differences to the lives of the individuals and communities involved.

The teachers and activists whose work is described have all made efforts to connect the local with the global. Participants, whether they are campaigning for HIV/AIDS treatment literacy in South Africa, health education in Sierra Leone or women’s education in Ireland, all see their struggles as part of something bigger.

With global poverty high on the political agenda, there has never been a more opportune time for educators to embed in their work the issues with which the current mass mobilisations of opinion are concerned. By cooperating with these movements to force democracy and social justice back onto the education agenda, perhaps adult educators really can help change the world.

Click here for more information on Adults Learning

Order Adults Learning online now!

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Overcoming UK Skills Shortages - New Partnership Launched

Helping refugees and migrants into jobs

A new partnership - Progress GB – to help employers overcome skill shortages and support refugees and migrants develop and adapt their skills for the UK labour market, will be launched in Leicester on 16th June 2005.

Progress GB is led by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and supported by partner organisations across the country. Research by NIACE has demonstrated that refugees and migrants have a wide range of skills and qualifications in a variety of professions, including business and vocational fields. However they frequently experience unemployment or only gain low-skilled, casual employment. At the same time employers in the UK are unable to fill vacancies in a variety of areas such as construction, transport, engineering and health and social care.

In addition to this, research from the Home Office has revealed that it takes an average of 20 years for migrants in the UK to reach the same level of employment as UK-born workers with similar skills.

Jean Kouchou Fondjo, a civil engineer, originally from Cameroon, said:

“This project will be very helpful for people like me, as it will enable us to gain recognition for our skills and find work that makes use of those skills.”

Sheila Hoile, Director of Skills Strategy, Construction Industry Training Board, said:

“Construction is experiencing a period of strong demand particularly with the Government’s ambitious programmes for housing, education, hospitals and infrastructure. To meet that demand there is a need for skilled workers. As part of our planned approach to satisfying that need we welcome initiatives such as this to ensure that we attract and use to their full potential, properly qualified refugees and migrant workers.”

Vicki Ball, the Director of Workforce Development, said:

 “Properly qualified refugees and migrant workers play a key role in keeping the passenger transport industries working effectively. We have a serious shortage of skilled workers and without the contribution of migrant workers and refugees as drivers, many of our transport companies will be unable to provide a full service to the public.”

Sue Waddington, Progress GB Project Leader, said:

“Refugees and migrant workers are often highly skilled and highly motivated but can find it very difficult to find progress in the UK workplace. Progress GB will be able to develop new approaches to benefit both employers and refugees across the UK. We will help refugees into jobs, predominately where there is a current shortage of skilled workers.

Three new language advice lines will be set up by Ufi/learndirect to enable refugees and migrants to gain information about relevant courses.

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Designing the just learning society

‘Formidable Roadblocks Ahead’

‘Learning is not an essentially good thing’; ‘power and money distort learning in civil society’; ‘the emergence of a knowledge or learning society cannot be accepted as either new or good’; and ‘learning is harnessed in the modern world to the money-code and channels human energies and capacities in destructive directions’, are all ideas discussed in a new book, Designing The Just Learning Society: A Critical Inquiry.

Written by Michael Welton, and published by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), Designing The Just Learning Society examines the history of the concept of the learning society. It argues that, if adult education has a significant role to play in the 21st century, then some formidable roadblocks have to be confronted along the learning journey.

Michael Welton said:

“Today the discourse of lifelong learning, the learning organisation, the learning economy, knowledge-enabled corporations, and learning democracy permeates discussions in Europe and, increasingly, in many parts of the world. Adult learning, we are told, holds the key to the 21st century. Designing The Just Learning Society exposes the gap between the inspiring rhetoric of the learning society and the grim realities of wasted human potential littering the global landscape.”

He continued, “The tour taken through the contemporary intellectual world reveals the impossibility of thinking about a just learning society apart from the power, greed and privilege of those who hoard the goods and skew the learning processes in the service of the money-code. Our modestly resilient hope that a just learning society is a realistic utopia lies with the recognition that human beings have the capacity for self-determination and self-expression. But the contexts within which we make our living, live our lives as citizens and express our uniqueness enables or constrains possible courses of action and ways of interacting with others.”

He ended, “The communicative infrastructure of the institution, association or interaction must be consciously designed to foster knowledgeability and not ignorance. A co-operative spirit rather than cynicism in the face of power is what is required. But there is much to overcome. Thus, it is essential that we understand the way learning is distorted in civil society and the workplace and in cultural life. The ideal of the learning society, the learning organisation and the empowered citizen present a radical reorientation for educators everywhere.”

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Managing an Ageing Workforce in Health and Social Care

A Conference from NIACE

The health and social care services face a potential staffing crisis. The workforce is ageing, and the numbers of new recruits do not match the numbers retiring, many of them early. More than a quarter of current employees are over 50, and the service already faces fierce competition for new staff, with full employment and high wage levels. The problem is particularly severe in the South East where a strong economy is pushing up pay and living costs, making public sector work uncompetitive.

One solution to the problem would be to persuade older staff to remain in their jobs for longer. However, relatively little is known about older people’s attitudes to work, and about ways of organising work which would make it more attractive. While Government is encouraging people to stay in work longer (age discrimination becomes illegal next year) and there have been retention initiatives in the NHS, real retirement ages are not rising.

Stephen McNair, Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for Research into the Older Workforce (CROW) at the University of Surrey and Head of School, NHSU, said:

“If the service is to meet the high expectations of the current policy agenda it badly needs to understand how to retain older staff, and ensure that they remain productive. There are some exciting examples of good practice in the Region, but we need to disseminate their experience, and explore how to adapt it to different situations.”

A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report Nurses over 50, stated that, “Our findings show clearly that the NHS has not been devoting specific attention to nurturing older nurses as a valuable resource. The result is that nurses feel that they are not being helped by their employers to address difficulties associated with growing older in a rapidly changing service. This undoubtedly contributes to earlier exit from nursing than might otherwise be the case. Yet there is much potential to reduce these difficulties and to make nursing more attractive, by focusing on the particular needs of older nurses, including those returning to the profession.”

The Managing an Ageing Workforce in Health and Social Care conference, is being organised jointly by CROW and NIACE, at the request of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), which has identified health and social care as a priority sector for development in the South East.

It will be held on Monday 20th June 2005 at One Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HD

The conference is relevant to all Human Resource professionals, those responsible for the organisation of work and workforce planning in health and social care and academic researchers concerned with the workforce based in the South East region and nationally. Participants in the day will leave with a better understanding of the current age profile of the NHS workforce, of what motivates older workers to stay, and of initiatives in progress nationally and within the Region.

Get further information or to apply online here

Or contact Gurjit Kaur on Tel: 0116 2042833; mailto:gurjit.kaur@niace.org.uk

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How effective is online learning?

New research seeks answer

As more and more people are using computers and the Internet for a whole host of different life tasks – such as shopping, banking and booking holidays - NIACE is conducting a research project to find out how effective learning online is.

With over 3000 courses now available to study online - in subjects as diverse as languages, IT and fork lift truck driving – this form of learning is often seen as convenient for learners and, as such, it is anticipated to become ever more popular. However NIACE is keen to hear about the experiences – good and bad - of learners who have chosen to study online, so future learners can benefit.

Lisa Englebright, Researcher, ICT and Learning Team, NIACE, said:

“This is the first generation of learners who have studied online. For NIACE it’s both interesting and important to find out what the benefits are and what the drawbacks have been. We’re keen to get an accurate picture of how effective or ineffective online learning has been for adults. We want to hear your stories whether they’re positive or negative. Perhaps your online course led to a better job or a new career? Or perhaps you couldn’t complete your course because it wasn’t suitable or you didn’t have the time or suitable computer hardware to commit to it fully. Whatever your experience, we want to hear from you to help with our research.”

She continued, “Once we’ve got our findings, we hope to be able to increase the understanding of providers and decision makers about online learning. This will ensure that steps are taking to improve on what’s available and help more learners to take advantage of the flexibility of learning in this way. If you’re interested in taking part in this research please call my colleague Ian Pettit on 0116 204 6986 or email him at ian.pettit@niace.org.uk "

The research questionnaire can be downloaded here (Word file).

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Closing The Equity Gap In Higher Education

New analysis on the challenges ahead

At a time when the Government is aiming to increase the number of students in higher education (HE), a new book offers an analysis of the impact of higher tuition fees for students from low-income families and looks at how HE is organised in terms of progression for students from “alternative” entry routes.

Closing the Equity Gap: the impact of widening participation strategies in the UK and the USA - published by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and edited by Geoff Layer, Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of Bradford - focuses on how a more socially inclusive higher education system might be secured. It explores the challenges facing higher education as the student financial support model increasingly relies on higher fees and delayed debt.

The book is a series of papers developed by eminent academics focussing on such issues as the economic impact of tuition fees on access in the USA; the Scottish experience in broadening participation through short-cycle courses; the role of the Further Education college in providing HE in England; how college education and financial support operate in the USA; and the implications that broadening participation has for the learning and teaching strategy of universities.

Geoff Layer said:

“Closing the Equity Gap provides a radical new look at the issues facing higher education in the UK and the USA. As both countries seek to widen participation so that those from low-income groups can benefit from higher education, they are faced with the dilemma of finance – becoming increasingly reliant on higher fees and delayed debt - and securing change within universities and colleges. The analysis - from some of the key policy makers in UK and USA higher education sectors - shows the progress made, reflects on the problems raised and focuses on the need to shift the paradigm from thinking merely about participation in higher education to focussing on the success of that participation.”

He ended, “If the student community is changing, and we have moved from an elite system of higher education where only a few participate, to a universal system where everyone is expected to be able to access HE, the key question is to what extent does higher education have to change its approach.”

Buy it online now! Closing the Equity Gap: the impact of widening participation strategies in the UK and the USA is edited by Geoff Layer and is published by NIACE – priced at £18.95 - ISBN: 1 86201 236 9.

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Adult learners relish new languages

There is strong demand for adult language classes, and the English are learning a wider range of languages than ever before, a new survey of LEA provision has found. But the high proportion of learners at the early stages of language learning makes provision vulnerable in a funding regime which prioritises Level 2 courses.

The survey, which took place from December 2004 to February 2005, was carried out by CILT, the National Centre for Languages in collaboration with the Association for Language Learning and NIACE between .

Published on 23rd May, the survey found that adults in England are learning 36 different languages in LEA classes, and that 75% of them are at beginners or at Level 1. Spanish is the most popular language, with one third of learners opting for the world’s most commonly spoken language after Mandarin and English.

Isabella Moore, Director of CILT, the National Centre for Languages, which co-ordinated the survey, said:

‘The figures show that there is a will among the English people to overturn the monolingual stereotype. There is a mixture of motivations which have to do with what we want to get out of life in both work and leisure. But there is no doubt that we are starting to become more open to the idea of being global citizens and needing to communicate in a range of languages other than English.

‘In order to respond to new patterns of demand it is important that we safeguard and develop provision for those in the early stages of learning a new language, as well as providing for progression to the higher levels.’

The final report can be found downloaded here

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Cuts in provision for learners with learning difficulties. Have your say.

At a recent meeting of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) National Equality and Diversity Committee, the NIACE Director for Research, Development and Information, Dr Peter Lavender, spoke of anecdotal evidence that suggests cuts in provision for learners with learning difficulties. The LSC recognises its commitment to learners with learning difficulties and needs to be informed of any such provision change.

NIACE is calling for evidence about reductions, changes or cuts in provision that are seen as detrimental to the learner and the learning provision. If your learning organisation has made any reductions, changes or cuts to this provision please let us know.

In short, we need to know:

Please either:

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Putting The Life Back Into Adult Learning - A Manifesto for Change

On Wednesday 9th March around fifty learners, community activists and education workers from the North of England came together in Manchester to produce a manifesto to put the life back into adult learning. This manifesto has now been published by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA).

Discussion at the meeting, which was facilitated by NIACE and supported by the WEA, was lively and invigorating. Everyone agreed that adult learning matters because it gives people the knowledge, belief and confidence to change things – in their own lives and for the wider benefit of their communities and workplaces.

The Manifesto can be downloaded here

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