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Some file on this page are PDF files. Adult learning devastated
The announcement from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in the Statistical First Release (SFR) containing new figures on learner numbers in Further Education and work based learning - for October 2006 - shows a further significant drop in the number of adult learners in Further Education (FE) and Adult and Community Learning (ACL).
Overall there are one in eight fewer adult learners since October 2005 with almost a quarter of a million people no longer engaging in learning. The figures illustrate dramatic falls for each five year cohort from adults aged 25 and over, with nearly one in three fewer learners over 60. There are now less than half the learners aged 60 and over than there were two years ago.
Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said:
“The time has come for Government to take breath and ask itself whether this is the best way to secure a learning society. A million adults have been lost to learning in just two years. How many more have we got to lose before the Government wakes up?”
He continued, “The evidence is overwhelmingly clear. Adult learning makes a difference to your health. It inhibits the onset of Alzheimer’s and has a positive effect on learners’ children. Because of demography two in three of the jobs in the next ten years will need to be filled by adults. All the gains of the last ten years are now lost except for the welcome increases in literacy, language and numeracy learners and the modest improvements in workplace learning. It’s too high a price to pay. These figures show that adult learning provision has been devastated over the past two years.”
Source: NIACE Press Release: "Adult learning devastated" Released On 28/03/2007
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NIACE welcomes new measures on ESOL
NIACE welcomes the proposals announced on Monday 26th March by Bill Rammell MP, on the changes to the eligibility for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses and changes to the eligibility to FE funding for asylum seekers.
Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said:
“These are really welcome modifications to the government’s proposals but there is a continuing challenge to recognise that people need access to learning skills from the day they arrive in this country. The outstanding economic and social benefits from investing in ESOL must, in our view, be addressed urgently in the Comprehensive Spending Review.”
The announcement from Bill Rammell today co-incided with the first meeting of the National ESOL Forum. The Forum – funded by the DfES - has been established following the publication of the NIACE-led committee of enquiry into ESOL. In its final report – More than a language – the committee made 39 recommendations, one of which was to establish a forum to act as a source of expertise and advice on ESOL issues and to ensure that policy developments across government take full account of ESOL issues.
Peter Lavender, Deputy Director at NIACE and member of the Forum on ESOL, said:
“I sincerely hope that the new National Forum on ESOL will be able to help with good advice to the Department on improving the quantity and quality of ESOL provision.”
Source: NIACE Press Release: "NIACE welcomes new measures on ESOL" Released On 26/03/2007
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Adult learners and Hollyoaks actor discuss future of learning
The actor Kevin Sacre - who plays Jake in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks - talked about the impact learning has had on his life and career at an event for adult learners held in Wigan yesterday (Thursday 22nd March 2007). The event which considered the shape of working and learning in the future was attended by over 70 people from all over the north west of England.
Organised by NIACE, the 20:20 skills vision event considered the recommendations of the final report of Lord Leitch, Prosperity for all in the global economy - world class skills. Delegates discussed the learning and working needs of the future and what skills training the Government needs to make available in the pursuit of a world class economy by the year 2020.
Mark Ravenhall, Associate Director at NIACE, said:
“It was great to see so many people come to the event to discuss how adult learning makes such a massive contribution to their communities, family life and where they work.”
He continued, “Participants enjoyed the imaginative approach to the event which asked people to remember what they were doing in 1994 - 13 years ago - before looking forward 13 years into the future to the year 2020. Everyone was aware that many jobs in the north west will be different in that time.”
People at the event were asked to vote for their top ten priorities for future learning and training. Popular ideas were; more understanding of other cultures through language courses, more apprenticeships in skilled trades and education for active citizenship.
Kevin Sacre described how he originally intended to train as a biochemist before catching the acting bug. His acting training had helped him get a job that he considered the best in the world.
Jackie Croft, Knowsley Learning Club Development Officer, who attended yesterday’s event, said:
“Many thanks, the event has given the learners ownership of their future; they are all planning to move on personally and educationally in both themselves and their families. The conversation that was generated on our way home was so enlightening as well as stimulating. All learners have asked when the next one will be, they were ringing people on the way home to let them know what a great day they had and what their friends had missed by not attending.“
The Government have asked NIACE to produce a final report on your opinions to help influence ministers and education policy makers about what needs to be done.
Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning and Further and Higher Education, said:
“The UK has a strong economy but we will lose out internationally if employers do not have available to them the skills they need to compete in an increasingly globalised economy. In his report, Lord Leitch set out the need for the UK to become a world leader in skills by 2020 with Government, employers, and employees all playing their part to make this ambition a reality. These events present an excellent opportunity for learners and potential learners to find out what they can do to help reap the rewards of improving skills and I am looking forward to hearing their views."
Source: NIACE Press Release: "Have your say on working and learning in the future" Released On 20/03/2007
 | More details on the 20:20 skills vision events |
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FE Sector Self Regulation Implementation Group Website
A consultation on Sir George Sweeney's Self Regulation Implementation Group Phase 1 Proposition to the Secretary of State on Self Regulation for the Further Education Sector opened on 13 March 2007.
To contribute please visit www.feselfregulation.org.uk.
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Have your say on working and learning in the future
People across the country will get the chance to influence Government policy on the future of training and learning opportunities at a series of events - organised by NIACE - to be held in Wigan, Slough and Newcastle later this month.
The 20:20 skills vision events will consider the recommendations of the final report of Lord Leitch, Prosperity for all in the global economy - world class skills. Delegates at each event will consider the learning and working needs of the future and what skills training the Government needs to make available in the pursuit of a world class economy by the year 2020.
Mark Ravenhall, Associate Director at NIACE, said:
“Over the last ten years millions of adults have gained new skills and qualifications. Yet despite these successes, we are told there is an urgent need for the UK to improve further if we are to be a more prosperous society and compete with economies across the world. By the year 2020 of course, a lot could have happened. For instance, we are an ageing population - there are, in fact, already more people over-60 than under-16 in this country and this trend will continue. Most of us are living longer and while this is good, there are wide-ranging implications when it comes to our jobs, wages and pensions.”
He continued, “Because the focus is on the year 2020, you will get the opportunity to look back on the changes to your lives and society over the past 13 years. What were you doing in 1994? It was the year Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa and Tony Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party. Forest Gump won the Oscar for Best Film and Brazil won the football World Cup in the USA. We could shop on Sunday’s for the first time and try our luck at the National Lottery. Since then mobile phones and the Internet have become common, everyday tools for the majority of people. By considering what’s happened since then, it give us an idea of what lies ahead – the challenge is to identify what that is. This, we hope, will then enable you to consider what may be necessary over the next 13 years. The Government have asked NIACE to produce a final report on your opinions to help influence ministers and education policy makers about what needs to be done.”
Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning and Further and Higher Education, said:
“The UK has a strong economy but we will lose out internationally if employers do not have available to them the skills they need to compete in an increasingly globalised economy. In his report, Lord Leitch set out the need for the UK to become a world leader in skills by 2020 with Government, employers, and employees all playing their part to make this ambition a reality. These events present an excellent opportunity for learners and potential learners to find out what they can do to help reap the rewards of improving skills and I am looking forward to hearing their views."
Source: NIACE Press Release: "Have your say on working and learning in the future" Released On 20/03/2007
| More details on the 20:20 skills vision events |
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ESOL Podcast
Changes to proposals on ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) provision were announced by Bill Rammell MP, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning and Further and Higher Education, at an event on 7th March 2007, organised by NIACE on behalf of the DfES.
While welcoming the changes many of the delegates felt that the Minister hadn’t gone far enough and shared with Ed Melia, NIACE Press Officer, their main concerns and where the campaign to ‘save ESOL’ was heading.
Ed Melia speaks to:
| Alan Tuckett, NIACE |
| Helen Casey, National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy |
| Roger Kline, University and College Union |
| Irene Austin, Co-Chair National Association of Teaching English and other Community Languages to Adults |
| Download the ESOL Podcast here (MP3 file 1.8 MB) |
(If the podcast does not start playing in you browser, right click and save it onto your computer and then play it back through your usual media player)
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Making the most of technological advances in learning
Hundreds of practitioners from across the country will come together at an event in Nottingham at the end of March to examine how advances in technology are having a significant impact on how adults learn. Organised by NIACE, the E-Guides National Event will celebrate the progress and innovation of technology currently being used in the delivery of adult education.
Building on the success of last year’s inaugural E-Guides Event – which 99% of delegates rated as excellent – this year’s event aims to:
| provide up-to-the-minute input about adult learning and e-learning issues for managers and practitioners; |
| report on the progress of embedding e-learning and share experience; |
| offer hands-on training opportunities with a range of software and hardware; |
| enable E-Guides and e-learning leaders to consider how to sustain the momentum generated by the initial training programme; and |
| encourage networking across sectors and amongst subject specialists. |
Mary Moss, Project Officer, ICT and Learning Team at NIACE, said:
“Building on the huge success of last year’s event – participants will find a flexible programme to pursue their specific interests in e-learning. There will be the opportunity to update knowledge on e-learning developments and listen to a variety of dynamic speakers. We aim to give our event a truly hands-on feel with a choice of over twenty workshops that offer skills training as well as many more demonstrating good practice - from introducing the use of IT for care workers to how to use animated figures to help learning French.
She ended, “By using this opportunity to discuss the best way forward and consider how to consolidate the skills and knowledge gained to date we hope to sustain the enthusiasm and momentum generated already by the E-Guides training programme. In fact it will be the excitement and enthusiasm that the E-Guides take back with them that helps them to continue to improve the quality of teaching and learning in their organisations.”
Source: NIACE Press Release: "Making the most of technological advances in learning" Released On 15/03/2007
| More details on the E-Guide National Event |
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NIACE welcomes changes to ESOL proposals
NIACE welcomes the proposals announced on Wednesday 7 March 2007 by Bill Rammell MP, Minister of State for Further Education, Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, at a special conference on ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) - organised by NIACE and held in London.
| Hear the new measures being announced here - (MP3 file 579KB) |
(If the interview does not start playing in you browser, right click and save it onto your computer and then play it back through your usual media player)
| A full transcript of the speech can be found on the DfES website (direct link). |
In the speech the Minister announced significant changes to the government’s proposals on ESOL including decisions to:
| investigate measures of support for workers on low wages; |
| reinstate ESOL provision for asylum seekers after six months; |
| make provision for those who have special leave to stay; and |
| make provision available for spouses. |
Significant work will be undertaken across government departments – including the Department for Education and Skills, the Department of Work and Pensions and the Home Office.
Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said:
“These are really welcome modifications to the government’s proposals but there is a continuing challenge to recognise that people need access to learning skills from the day they arrive.”
“The outstanding economic and social benefits from investing in ESOL must, in our view, be addressed urgently in the Comprehensive Spending Review.”
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Alan Tuckett speaks at ESOL lobby
Over 1,000 people attended a lobby of parliament to save ESOL provision on Wednesday 28th February 2007. The lobby, co-ordinated by the University and College Union (UCU) and USDAW heard from around 40 speakers, including Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE.
Mr Tuckett used the opportunity to focus on the language needs of asylum seekers.
He said:
“The principle that you are innocent until proven guilty is at the heart of our criminal justice system. But for asylum seekers it seems it’s the reverse, with Government proposals to deny all asylum seekers access to learning until they’ve successfully secured the right to stay.”
“But the duty of care we accept under the Geneva Convention means that people who are the victims of oppression, torture, rape and economic dislocation - the obligations to them begin the day they arrive. The fact that some other people may not have such an entitlement is no reason to fail to meet their needs.”
“The minute you arrive in this country you need the support and access to essential services that language can give. A lack of language skills only reinforces isolation. We call on the Government to review their plans in line with their welcome focus on the needs of the most excluded in Britain’s settled communities.”
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NIACE Interview with John Simpson
Ed Melia, NIACE Press Officer spoke to BBC World Affairs Editor, John Simpson, about his Quick Read - Twenty Tales from the War Zone
| Download John Simpson Interview here (MP3 file 2 MB) |
(If the interview does not start playing in you browser, right click and save it onto your computer and then play it back through your usual media player)
Subscribe to NIACE podcasts here
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Quick Reads Podcast
The impact of the Quick Reads has been huge. In this special report, NIACE Press Officer, Ed Melia, speaks to Quick Reads Project Director Kathy Gale, Bill Rammell MP, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning and Further and Higher Education, Mo Mowforth, a Skills for Life Tutor in Hull and two of her learners, Tina and Sue.
| Download Quick Reads Podcast here (MP3 file - 980 KB) |
(If the interview does not start playing in you browser, right click and save it onto your computer and then play it back through your usual media player)
Subscribe to NIACE podcasts here
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NIACE interview with Quick Reads author Minette Walters
NIACE Press Officer, Ed Melia, spoke to Minette Walters, author of one of the first Quick Reads - Chickenfeed - the winner of the inaugural Quick Read Learners' Favourite Award in 2006.
| Download Minette Walters Interview here (MP3 file - 1.6 MB) |
(If the interview does not start playing in you browser,
right click and save it onto your computer and then play it back through
your usual media player)
Subscribe to NIACE podcasts here
| Read more about Quick Reads here |
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Quick Reads 2007
NIACE Quick Reads Organiser, Richard Crabb, takes a look at the impact of the Quick Reads Initiative.
‘My daughter is twenty, very dyslexic and has never been able to read through a book in her life so far - she gets in about five pages and gets so lost she gives up. Last weekend she read her first Quick Reads book, Blackwater by Conn Iggulden, from one end to the other, oblivious to the rest of us and it was wonderful to see. She has now rushed out and bought two more. Thank you, thank you, thank you. She has always wanted to read and has shelves of books that have been attempted and not finished. We have bought other books that were meant to be designed for those with difficulty in reading but they have never been right. Please make sure that all the authors involved know that it is a great thing that they have done and encourage many more to join the scheme.’
Nothing sums up more concisely or brought such a sense of satisfaction to everyone involved the Quick Reads initiative than Juliet’s email. Launched on World Book Day 2006 12 short-paced, digestible books were published with emergent readers in mind. Juliet’s daughter was just one of them.
Many millions miss out on reading and the reasons are manifold. There’s a lack of confidence, a reluctance to admit that the standard of your reading hardly fills you with satisfaction and something society barely tolerates.
These books have been used in literacy classes across the country and been discussed in school dinner halls, army barracks and various community settings to great effect. People struggle to achieve a desirable work/life balance yet Quick Reads are ideal for people who simply don’t have the time to read but would love to do so.
There were instant results. The dinner ladies and their friends in Hull who formed part of the selection panel for the Quick Reads learners favourite award in 2006 – won by Minette Walters for the chicken farm murder of 1924 Chickenfeed – found Quick Reads to be an invaluable part of their literacy classes.
Sue, who went to literacy classes because she wanted to help her children with their homework said:
“I didn’t normally read books, but after reading John Bird’s book – I haven’t looked back really. I take my children to the library now and we go there pretty regularly. I’ve got some more Quick Read books. My eldest daughter is asking for my help with her homework. She’s actually asking, ‘Mum does that sound alright? Is there any other way I can put it?’ And now I can actually say ‘Yeah that sounds alright but you could put it this way’. I feel on top of the world. Through doing the literacy and reading the Quick Reads it’s put my self-esteem higher. A year and a half ago it was two or three, now it’s about seven or eight – and I want to get it up to ten!”
And it wasn’t just the learners, Carol Streader is a Skills for Life Literacy and ESOL tutor, at Sussexdowns College. She said:
“Chickenfeed was undoubtedly the best by far – I made a whole term’s Scheme of Work based on it with differentiated worksheets and it made a wildly disparate class pull together with united enthusiasm.“
“Jon Bird’s book [How to change your life in 7 steps] was very popular with my classes. Jon Bird came and spoke at a Basic Skills taster day held at Brighton station Learning Centre at the end of last summer and he had massive impact on his audience.”
And the book certainly won’t be closed on this initiative as a new chapter starts on World Book Day 2007 – 1st March – with eight new titles published and four of the most popular of last year’s titles reissued. Following in the footsteps of the highly popular Quick Reads from Richard Branson and John Bird will be Kerry Katona and Ricky Tomlinson. The late great Allen Carr shares his inspirational tale to rid the world of smoking and the BBC’s World Affairs Editor John Simpson shares some of his remarkable experiences from the front line of battlefield journalism.
Fiction arrives in the shape of another Dr Who quick read Made of Steel, Adele Geras’ ghost-story Lily and A Dream Come True from the best-selling and award-winning Maureen Lee.
Perhaps the most inspiring read for emergent authors will come from the winners of The Sun’s Get Britain Reading short story competition launched on World Book Day last year. The winning entries appear together with a foreword from Sun columnist Jo Moore.
It’s often said that for a recording artist their second album is always their biggest challenge and that too can ring true for campaigns. The crescendo that greeted last year’s launch some may have thought difficult to sustain. Nothing of the sort. At NIACE the Quick Reads team is dealing with over 100 enquiries a week from learning providers, employers & other organisations who want to know how they can get involved in Quick Reads. Over 8,000 organisations have ordered more than 30,000 packs of learning materials that’s an increase of over 40% on last year.
The enthusiasm is vividly apparent, the Quick Reads initiative has worked and appears to be cascading far and wide. Who knows just how many more soldiers, ESOL students, bus drivers, commuters, dinner ladies, homeless people, travelers, bin men and those like Juliet’s daughter, will be enticed into the wonderful world that is reading and experience new-found confidence and the desire to achieve yet more.
| Quick Reads website |
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Lobby over ESOL
NIACE Director Alan Tuckett will be contributing to Wednesday's lobby of Parliament organised by the University and College Union (UCU) after meeting with the Minister Bill Rammell MP.
NIACE's position on ESOL is clearly outlined in the 39 recommendations made to the Government following the NIACE-led inquiry into ESOL which published its final report in October 2006.
| Further information about NIACE's ESOL inquiry can be found here. |
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Quick Reads prove invaluable in the classroom
Over 8,000 organisations ordering more than 30,000 promotional and learning packs have contacted the Quick Reads team at NIACE to get valuable resources ahead of the publication of eight brand new Quick Reads on World Book Day (1st March 2007).
The Quick Reads initiative was launched on World Book Day 2006 with the publication of twelve short books from famous authors including Maeve Binchey, Richard Branson, Joanna Trollope and Minette Walters whose Quick Read – Chickenfeed – won the inaugural Quick Reads Learners’ Favourite Award in 2006.
This year’s eight Quick Reads to be published on Thursday 1st March 2007 are:
| Reading My Arse! by Ricky Tomlinson |
| Survive the Worst and Aim for the Best by Kerry Katona |
| Burning Ambition by Allen Carr |
| Twenty Tales from the War Zone by John Simpson |
| Lily by Adele Geras |
| A Dream Come True by Maureen Lee |
| Made of Steel a Doctor Who title by Terrance Dicks; and |
| The Sun Book of Short Stories with a foreward by Jane Moore |
The structure of the Quick Reads - short sentences, few words of no more than two syllables and only 20,000 words long – means that literacy tutors have found them an excellent resource for classes. Learners have shown great enthusiasm for not only reading the books, but for group discussions, writing reviews and forming book clubs.
Richard Crabb, Quick Reads Organiser at NIACE, said:
“The level of interest this year has far exceeded that shown for the launch of Quick Reads in 2006, in fact the distributors have had to take on extra staff to cope with the demand. We have been contacted by a whole range of literacy tutors working in adult education. The army, prisons, colleges, adult education centres, classes for migrants and refugees and for homeless people and travellers have all been in touch. The Quick Reads work because they are well written but easier to understand than traditional books. There’s a wide scope of authors offering plenty of choice for reluctant and emergent readers. The learning resources appeal to tutors, demonstrated by the thousands of orders we’ve received.”
Mo Mowforth, a skills for life tutor in Hull, said:
“When we first started the learners were listeners – now they’re talkers. At the beginning they lacked confidence, they lacked knowledge and they lacked trust. By involving them in something like this they’ve moved on from that position to thinking, ‘this is what I want to do, this is where I want to go and this is what I want to achieve’.
She added:
“I was with one learner earlier today and she pulled out 8 Quick Reads which she wants to read. That says it all – that enthusiasm, that excitement and that desire to read from someone who this time last year hadn’t read a book in over 30 years.”
She ended, “With the Quick Reads you’ve got the big-name personalities, the big- name authors, you’ve got the attractive books; even just the covers stimulate discussion. You’ve got the resources to back them up and you’ve got learners who are interested and keen – and that’s why they work.”
Source: NIACE Press Release: "Quick Reads prove invaluable in the classroom" Released On 27/02/2007
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