Ed Melia, NIACE Press Officer:
Adult Learners' Week sees the publication of the annual NIACE survey on participation in learning by adults. As part of a series of podcasts for Adult Learners' Week, Alan Tuckett, director of NIACE discusses this years' findings.
Alan Tuckett, Director, NIACE:
41% of us say we are doing some learning now or we have in the last 2-3 years. That is just 1% lower than last year, but 1% represents half a million people. The number of young people entering the word of work is dropping dramatically, that means we are going to have to have more adults in the labour marker and jobs are becoming more skills-rich so we need more people learning; and people live much longer after retirement. There's no doubt that learning helps your health and helps keep you going it gives you a richer, more satisfying life. If you engage in learning you children do better at school. So any drop is a worry.
Ed Melia:
The survey takes account of a number of different factors: including learners ages, social standing and employment status. This information provides much for policy makers to consider.
Alan Tuckett:
The number of part-time workers engaged in learning drops from 55% to 47%. That's an 8% drop in a single year and yet here we are with a government really keen to rebalance learning to be able to make sure that people in the workforce. It suggests either that the public money government is pumping into learning at work is squeezing out private money that was there before or that the end of short courses in public provision has particularly hurt part-time workers.
The numbers of older people who are engaged in learning has held firm, and if anything, gone up at a time when we've seen a million adults lost from Learning and Skills Council funded provision. Now what that tells us is that existing learners have been finding other places to carry on with their studies. "Jolly good" you would say - no point in spending public money when people can organise it for themselves. But the worry is that the classes aren't there to build that confidence and stimulate group work for the next group of people who come along. And the real depressing story is that ten years into lifelong learning policy as being a top priority, we have still seen no movement at all amongst the poorest and amongst retired people. where we see just one in four people engaging in learning.
Ed Melia:
Alan Tuckett is clear about what action needs to happen.
Alan Tuckett:
I think the Government's rebalanced public funding for adult learning, at the expense of many people participating, is offering more to smaller numbers. Is that the right balance to have achieved? We are convinced that you need more public investment in adult learning, more classes across the country, and we do think employers should pay more of the share of the cake. Certainly individuals who can afford to pay should pay.
But what we need is more learning opportunities, not the loss of nearly half a million people in a single year.
Ed Melia:
The are however, some positive signs for the future.
Alan Tuckett:
We have at least had an impact on peoples good intentions. There are more people now who think they will take up learning in the next three years. The trick is to turn good intentions into practice and for that people need motivation and they need opportunity. Adult Learners' Week is designed to help with motivation - it is up to Government to make sure there is enough opportunities.