Download your free copy of the FE Week 16-page  supplement celebraing Adult Learners’ Week 2014 ~ in partnership with NOCN.

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Learning that goes far beyond the school classroom

Welcome to this year’s Adult Learners’ Week (ALW) supplement.

For me, the best thing about this annual week of celebration is the stories of people who find new skills that change their lives.

What has struck me this year is that it’s not just people who struggle at school who benefit from adult learning (although, of course, they do), it also boosts those who want to progress at work or pursue a lifelong dream or are in prison and want the skills to change their lives when they are released.

The National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (Niace) wants everyone to experience these benefits; on page 3, read the manifesto that it believes will help to make this happen.

On pages 4 and 5, learners, including winners of the ALW awards, tell their stories. Read too about the Transforming Lives award for tutors.

On pages 6 and 7, there’s a profile of Bob Rose, South Gloucestershire and Stroud College’s head of work and life preparation. He’s a man who has experienced the power of adult learning in his own life.

We’ve got a feature on prison learning on pages 10 and 11, with a piece by Prisoners’ Education Trust chief executive Rod Clark that celebrates offender learners’ achievements.

On page 12, Association of Colleges president Michele Sutton tells us what colleges can do for adult learners, and Dr Fiona Aldridge, Niace assistant director for development and research, analyses the institute’s adult learning participation survey.

On page 13, Frances Graham, director of Workbase Training, writes about Learning Associates who support learning in non-unionised workplaces, while Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal calls for integrated employment and skills programmes.

Finally you can look at pages 14 and 15 for our calendar of taster sessions running across the UK throughout this wonderful week.

As always, you can contact us and keep track of events on twitter via @FEWeek #ALW14

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  1. The WEA welcomes the NIACE manifesto – not least because it complements much of our own manifesto launched the WEA’s Annual Lecture given by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thomspon (www.wea.org.uk/manifesto).

    The NIACE manifesto majors on skills and learning and we would particularly support the second priority on ‘New Localism’ which aligns to some extent with one of our main campaigns ‘Deciding locally’. However, to succeed we believe this would need to go further in engaging communities in more of the decisions which affect them. We see this as key to democracy and to re-establishing public confidence in the decisions of agencies and government.

    The third priority – around Personal Skills accounts – is very welcome as it is almost exactly the same as our manifesto’s call for Training and Development accounts. The success of the recent introduction of auto-enrolment into pensions – ‘nudging’ workers and employers into planning for the future – provides an ideal model for shared ownership of training and skills development for the whole workforce. We believe this should be combined with a massive extension of the Living Wage to reduce in-work poverty and provide the elements for decent work for the future.

    Naturally we also welcome Priority 4 – the funding of basic skills is critical. We would emphasise the importance of ESOL more strongly because of the need to address intolerance and exclusion in Britain today – but we’re sure NIACE would be with us on this.

    The key now is to promote debate and discussion on the priorities in both our manifestos to ensure that the value of adult learning to a successful society and economy is heard and understood over the next year.