adult education | FE Week

FE can show HE how to support disadvantaged adult learners

A trusted adviser makes a huge difference to re-engaging adult learners with education, writes Abi Angus New research recently showed us that disadvantaged adults are almost twice as likely not to have engaged in learning than their more advantaged peers. The findings from the Learning and Work Institute found 37 per cent of adults in the […]

The FE Week Podcast: Adult training reforms, degree apprenticeships and the new shadow education secretary

In this episode, Shane is joined by Mary Curnock Cook, chair of Pearson and former chief executive at UCAS, Eddie Playfair at the Association of Colleges and Asfa Sohail, principal at Lewisham College. Are adult training reforms happening fast enough? Are universities struggling to deliver degree apprenticeships? And with a new shadow education secretary, what […]

The FE Week Podcast: Plans for higher education, adult participation in FE and Ofsted

This week Shane is joined by three guests, to cover three particularly interesting topics: Ed Reza Schwitzer, former DfE civil servant, Sue Pember, adult education guru, and Catherine Sezen at the Association of Colleges. Has the government got it right with its plans to involve universities more in student outcomes? How can the sector drive […]

Interview: Asi Panditharatna

Asi Panditharatna is tired of low expectations for former prisoners, drug addicts and the unemployed. He asks Jess Staufenberg why only certain people are thought of as ‘labour’ A few weeks ago the deputy prime minister came out with a grand possible solution to the HGV driver shortage causing havoc at petrol stations and food […]

Levelling up will only happen if maths and English improve

The country is still not getting the basics right on literacy and numeracy, writes Fiona Aldridge Getting the basics right is fundamental, but as recent research from the Learning and Work Institute shows, we are clearly not doing well enough. An estimated nine million working-age adults in England have low basic skills in literacy or […]

We are at a critical juncture on lifelong learning

The lifelong education commission is calling for changes – including a rule that needs abolishing, writes David Latchman You may not have thought it applies to you, in the relatively stable, professionalised career of teaching, but “lifelong learning” is something we will soon all have to think about. The fourth industrial revolution, characterised by […]

Three critical questions the National Skills Fund consultation should have asked

The DfE mustn’t assume that ‘if we build it, they will come’, writes Emily Jones The government recently consulted on the National Skills Fund – a £2.5 billion investment to help people to “train, retrain and upskill throughout their lives in response to changing skills needs and employment patterns”. The consultation provided a great opportunity […]

Five urgent tips for the DfE on adult education

There are far too many barriers for the unemployed and low paid to get into learning, writes Chris Morgan There is a critical need to help the 3.7 million adults in the UK in low-paid and insecure work. Sixteen per cent of adults have poor literacy skills, and one in three have no qualifications. One […]

The slow death of adult residential education?

As Northern College fights for survival, FE Week asks – is the government overlooking a big opportunity to ‘level up’? Lee Hughes was 29 years old when he signed up to Northern College, one of just a few adult residential providers in the country, hidden away in expansive grounds in Barnsley. “It’s a bit of a […]