Adult education is about more than employability skills; it impacts the economy in all sorts of ways, says Ruth Spellman

While Adult Learners’ Week celebrates the achievements of students whose lives have been changed by adult education, providers need to reflect on whether the FE sector is achieving its goals. These are tough economic times. As providers, we have to focus on the impact we are having and the benefits of adult education to UK plc. The government recently highlighted in its policy paper, Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills, that we are in a global skills race and an effective FE sector is vital to making the UK competitive.

However, the policy focus should not be entirely on employability skills. The effects that adult education can have on community cohesion, social mobility and families are enormous and often go unrecognised.

A few weeks ago I met one of our learners, Lisa Harrington. She went through a few difficult years after she left school at 15 without any qualifications. But with our local partners, BEST, we gave her the opportunities that helped to turn her life around.

It was not just that Lisa was able to look for work for the first time. It was the impact on her children that struck me the most. She has become a role model for her family, breaking a cycle of education failure and creating a positive learning environment at home.

Family learning courses include cooking, learning through play, and supporting children with English and maths. The adults who achieve maths and English levels one and two are then in a much better position to help their children with homework and to understand any learning difficulties. Teaching reading skills, helping in sentence construction and composition and general written communication is proving a real boon to young people – all the more because their learning is reinforced by positive role models at home and time committed by their parents towards their education.

For adults, getting involved boosts self-confidence, encourages involvement in other volunteer activities, enables the acquisition of qualifications and enhances their own health and wellbeing. Headteachers have themselves reported children attending school more regularly along with improvements in behaviour and higher levels of achievement in academic studies.

At the Workers’ Educational Association we have created four course themes – employability, health and wellbeing, community engagement and cultural education – to see what effect we are having on the lives of learners.

Our research shows that all types of education have a positive impact.

Employability courses helped those in work progress their careers while giving those out of work the confidence to find a job. Our health and wellbeing courses reported a 98 per cent improvement in social and health impacts, with ‘life satisfaction’ ratings higher than the national average.

Community engagement courses gave people the chance to make new friends and many progressed on to volunteer work. In cultural education, 84 per cent said they improved at least one skill, such as communication or literacy skills, and 94 per cent of disadvantaged students said they were likely to undertake future learning or training as a result of the course.

We can’t achieve these results on our own. That is why we are focused on developing our already extensive links with universities, colleges, trade unions and employers. This will provide new opportunities for learners and raise educational aspirations so that the UK can have a truly world-class FE system. We are also engaging through new social media channels and mobilising support for adult learning to generate more public support for our work.

Policymakers need to take a holistic view of how adult education impacts the economy. As providers, we need to give them the evidence to show adult learning works. Together we can justify government investment in FE and community learning while continuing to meet the skills challenges of a competitive global economy.

Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the Workers’ Educational Association

Adult Learners’ Week is both a national celebration and a living showcase of how adult learning changes lives, says Nick Stuart

There is nothing like the power of anecdote to bring alive a policy discussion and give colour to the drab array of statistics that usually substitute for debate. Adult Learners’ Week reminds those who make policy what lifelong learning means to individuals. It demonstrates how learning brings a new richness to people’s lives; gives new confidence to many for whom  learning, let alone qualification, represents an often unimaginable ordeal; and encourages many to re-engage with their communities.

As a director-general, first for lifetime learning under the Conservatives and then for lifelong learning with the arrival of David Blunkett as Education Secretary, I was a regular attendee at Adult Learners’ Week. It gave me inspiration and context, and determined where I would put my efforts when I retired from Whitehall. In 2001, I joined the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE). In numerous ways, NIACE has inspired and pioneered work that has influenced the Department for Education’s thinking.

Over the past two decades, at different times, it has managed innovative community learning programmes funded centrally. These programmes have inspired local initiatives all over the country. They have had their origin primarily, in the work locally that animates Adult Learners’ Week and shows how central adult learning is to local cohesion and community development.

This week needs to look forward in anticipation of new initiatives as well as back on the year’s achievements”

In 1997 and immediately thereafter, policy attention turned to the national disgrace of an adult literacy rate that left almost 20 per cent of the nation with a reading age of 11.  Following Sir Claus Moser’s report, A Fresh Start – improving literacy and numeracy, the Government established a major programme to improve adult literacy. In today’s more austere times, that work continues.

Sir Claus’s analysis was influenced by the work and thinking of the Basic Skills Agency and of NIACE, and underpinned the decision-making and policy development that followed both on adult literacy and numeracy. Recent reports from NIACE carry that thinking forward and have fed into and influenced current government action. Every year, Adult Learners’ Week reinforces the case for adult literacy programmes and demonstrates indelibly what can be achieved.

The week acts as a catalyst to bring policy, action and real outcomes together; both to promote what works outstandingly well on the ground and to stimulate new ideas and thinking. It is not, however, simply a one-off week of celebration but rather the culmination of a huge amount of activity, locally and nationally. It needs to look forward in anticipation of new initiatives as well as back on the year’s achievements.

I am chairing a review of how Adult Learners’ Week is working. It is already clear that this imaginative festival, widely copied around the world, continues to have enormous vitality and appeal. But after 20 years, it is worth examining what it achieves, which of its many activities works best, and how to enhance its impact so that it beams down even more directly on illuminating and stimulating policy development.

Nick Stuart, president, NIACE

Adult Education Week is a perfect showcase for the transformative power of education later in life and often against the odds, says Christine Bullock

Apt awards is delighted to be sponsoring the FE Week supplement in celebration of Adult Learners’ Week. Adult learning is at the heart of what we do and this week is the perfect opportunity to explore the many types of learning available to adults from all walks of life.

It is a showcase for adult students for whom education can be transformative. It is always really positive to hear how life changing it can be, not only for the student concerned, but often for his or her family, friends and tutors.

In recognition of this, we introduced the Keith Fletcher memorial award for the most outstanding access to higher education tutor in the South West. The award is in memory of former director, Keith Fletcher, who worked enthusiastically throughout his career to promote widening participation, adult learning and, in particular, access to higher education.

Gillian Wilmot won the award last year. Recently retired, she had worked at Weston College since 1976, and was presented with the award at the college’s annual governors’ Christmas dinner in December. Gill said at the time: “My job has given me an enormous amount of enjoyment. There can be no greater honour than . . .  seeing students achieve their dreams.”

This award highlights the role that tutors play in the success of adult learners, many of them performing miracles in the face of diminishing resources. Families also play an important role in supporting adults in overcoming often multiple barriers to success.

We like to think that we play our part too. Previously trading as Open College Network South West (OCNSWR), apt awards has more than 30 years’ experience in developing flexible, credit-based, nationally recognised qualifications that offer bite-sized learning. Our development and growth will always be underpinned by the key aim of widening access to educational opportunities, particularly for adults, that promote social inclusion and community transformation.

We are proud of our access to higher education provision and how it opens doors and opportunities for learners. When we decided to change our name, we wanted to ensure that our new name reflected the type of learners we celebrate and how important access to higher education learners are to us. ‘Apt’ shows our qualifications are appropriate for our centres and learners but also stands for access, progression and transform.

We provide the tools, but it is the learner who achieves. Therefore, as well as celebrating the success of individual tutors, we are proud to be the headline sponsor for the South West Adult Learners’ Week awards ceremony.

I was very moved by last year’s event and was inspired by the stories of the adult learners who overcame adversity and multiple barriers. It reminded me of how proud I was of this often under-appreciated sector.

It also enhanced my view of what wonderful support that we, as an awarding organisation, can and do give. I see it as my role and that of my staff to do everything we can to enable access to learning, and the consequent transformation of lives and celebration of success.

We are also a social enterprise and, unusually for an awarding organisation, give not just awards but grants to centres to enable them to invest in much needed resources. This reflects our total commitment to our learners.

I want to offer my personal congratulations to every single adult learner who has achieved success; they are all prizewinners.

Christine Bullock, chief executive of apt awards

Featured image caption: Christine Bullock, left, with Cheryl Baker, ex Bucks Fizz, at an awards ceremony last year

Policymakers need to see adult education and lifelong learning beyond the silo of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, particularly in these straitened times, says Gordon Marsden

Adult Learners’ Week is a great opportunity to showcase the tremendous impact lifelong learning has on communities. My two decades as an Open University and Workers’ Educational Association tutor has shown me countless examples of its transformative potential, opening doors for people that they didn’t know existed.

It’s vital that we continue to protect and champion adult education and lifelong learning, even in these difficult times. I backed the Labour government’s decision to safeguard the Adult and Community Learning budget. It was to the credit of the previous Skills Minister, John Hayes, that this safeguard has remained. If Skills Minister Matthew Hancock is serious about lifelong learning, he too must take up this commitment and ensure that it survives next month’s spending review.

Regardless of what the review may bring, major storm clouds are looming, not least the introduction of 24+ advanced learner loans this year. As I have warned before in FE Week, though impact of this policy will be felt for all learners aged 24 and over – and not least women – it seems clear that the pressures could become most acute for those aged over 40. The government’s own market research and impact assessments bear this out, with less than one in four of those aged 40 and over saying they will go ahead with their course if loans are introduced.

As the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education rightly argued  early on in this process, while the option of an income contingent loan that is written off after 30 years might appeal to an 18-year-old starting university, it has very different implications for someone in their 40s returning to study at an FE college. As their own statistics bluntly illustrate, this government is risking a lost generation of adult learners.

John Hayes acknowledged the problem with the belated announcement of further support for 40+ learners as part of the  package of concessions we, along with stakeholders across the FE community, forced from the government last year. But as with their commitment to safeguard science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning, we have seen little urgency or concrete delivery from ministers.

But even in the current climate we must continue focusing on the tremendous opportunities lifelong learning can offer. Policymakers need to see adult education and lifelong learning beyond the silo of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Other departments should see how its expansion can benefit their public policy aims and, where appropriate, contribute and innovate.

It contributes to social cohesion, that’s an issue for the Department of Communities and Local Government. It helps people live longer, more productive lives mentally and physically, that’s an issue for the Department of Health. It has helped – and there are countless individual testimonials to this – to bring back offenders into society to productive and positive lives. That’s a matter for the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.

We should also be looking at how we can expand lifelong learning to reach more people, both to increase their fulfilment and because we need their contribution to regenerate our economy. I’ve seen the excellent work that Union Learn has done in workplaces across England; we should look at how we can harness this expertise to reach out to those people who have felt most distant from learning before and whose lives could be transformed by gaining new skills.

The demographic pattern in the UK is such that 80 per cent of our workforce of 2020 is already in the labour market; more and more people therefore will be looking to acquire the new skills that they need for the jobs of tomorrow. It’s vital that we help to create the right environment to allow lifelong learning to flourish.

Gordon Marsden, Shadow Skills Minister

Matthew Hancock celebrates Adult Learners’ Week. It is a chance, he says, for  people to seek out opportunities they might never have considered before

All of us in the further education and skills sector have a part to play to ensure that everyone in this country, regardless of their background, can be trained in the skills that they need to get on.

Historically we have had a poor skills base – which is the reason why we are engaged in a radical programme of education reforms. We want to emphasise rigour in our institutions and qualifications, and make the whole system more responsive to the needs of the individuals and communities that it serves.

Further education in this country began in the 19th century largely as a reaction against limited access to learning opportunities.

True to that spirit, the message of Adult Learners’ Week is that learning can do something valuable for you, whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever your previous experiences of education.

Adult Learners’ Week is England’s biggest celebration of learning. It is not organised by the government and it isn’t about promoting any individual political agenda.

Much of it is designed locally, to celebrate what communities are doing for themselves.

Everyone should have the chance to learn. The desire to make the best of yourself and fulfil your potential is one of the most laudable human characteristics. This week encourages people to seek out opportunities they might never have considered before.

Employers, too, will be able to find out the advantages that taking on an apprentice, a trainee or improving the skills of their employees can have for their business.

Many people, and in particular young people, are already aware of the career and earning advantages that an apprenticeship can bring. Apprenticeships represent some of the best of vocational education, combining rigorous training with real employment; this week is a chance to find out how to take up one of the more than half a million apprenticeship places that are now on offer every year.

There are also thousands of opportunities for older people, people with learning disabilities or difficulties, people who are homeless, carers and care leavers, offenders and more, to improve their skills to re-enter the labour market, to progress in careers that may have stalled, or to learn what they need to prepare for a change of direction.

Still more adults will be introduced to a range of learning opportunities for developing skills, confidence, motivation and independence, enabling them to contribute positively to their communities, support their families and do well in their lives.

This week, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education has rightly argued that investment in skills can have a real impact.

Not only can FE courses lift people out of unemployment and increase lifetime earnings, but research suggests that for every pound invested in apprenticeships returns at least £18 of value to the apprentice, their employers and the wider economy.

We are already taking steps to improve the system, but we need to go further to give everyone a chance to reach their potential and avoid being left behind by our international competitors.

Matthew Hancock, Skills Minister