More adults are engaging in learning than ever thanks to a growing number of “informal” online platforms such as YouTube videos, artificial intelligence and social media, research has found.
Learning and Work Institute’s (L&W) annual survey has been going since the 1996, and this year asked a representative group of 5,000 adults about learning they take part in, their motivations and its benefits.
It found that since the pandemic, the proportion of adults who mainly learned online increased from 47 to 63 per cent.
This included through online videos such as YouTube and TikTok (46 per cent), completed online assessments (40 per cent), emails (38 per cent) and social media pages such as Instagram or WhatsApp (24 per cent).
Learning through newer technologies such as ChatGPT saw a 4 percentage point rise to 18 per cent since last year, while virtual reality use remained static at only 9 per cent.
But the proportion of adults who have learned through formal education – such as a college or community learning course – remains substantially below the 2019 rate (33 per cent compared to 43 per cent) and has dropped two percentage points since 2023.
Cautiously historic high
The rise in informal learning has driven the survey’s “historically high” learning participation rate of 52 per cent of adults, up from 49 per cent last year.
The institute’s definition of learning is deliberately “broad” and can include online videos, emails, and video calls.
However, L&W said that while increasing adult learning patterns are increasing across Europe, comparisons to pre-2021 should be “treated with caution” as the survey changed from face-to-face to online.
This raises “potential issues” with participation of older, disabled and digitally excluded adults who may be less represented.
Formal over informal
L&W’s chief executive Stephan Evans said that while an increase in informal learning is “good and positive” there should be “routes to more formal learning and accreditation” for those that want them.
The institute believes that alongside improving life chances through earning potential, informal and leisure learning brings benefits such as being enjoyable and increasing confidence.
Informal learning can also serve as a “hook” for people to continue learning, L&W deputy director Emily Jones said, including progressing to more formal studies.
Invest in learning
The apparent “innate” hunger adults have for learning is “counter” to the funding government and employers are putting into it, Jones said.
This is reflected in the £1 billion drop in public investment in learning and skills in England since 2010.
The deputy director told FE Week: “If we don’t have kind of more formal or accredited opportunities available because that investment has gone down, then actually adults potentially missing out on the benefits that that more formal learning can give to progression in learning and progression at work.
“I don’t think this survey shows a rise in participation meaning that it’s job done.”
Persistent findings
Compared to previous surveys, this year’s found “stark and persistent” inequalities depending on geography, how close adults are to the labour market, the age they left education and social grade.
While two thirds of London adults participated in learning, the highest level in the country, regions such as the south west and Yorkshire and the Humber had the lowest rates at 43 and 47 per cent respectively.
Seven in ten adults faced barriers to studying, including time or work pressure and the cost of learning.
About 30 per cent of women and people of lower social grades were significantly more likely to face barriers than men (16 per cent) and the higher social grades (20 per cent.
What next?
Jones said L&W now hopes Skills England will look at how to improve access to “formal opportunities” and, in line with the institute’s values to “look at lifelong learning in the round”.
She pointed to Wales’ new tertiary education body Medr as a good potential example of a move towards a more “unified tertiary system” instead of “siloed” thinking by separate government departments.
The institute would also like to see the modular courses being piloted as part of the delayed Lifelong Learning Entitlement programme “broadened” to focus on lower levels, as well as levels 4 and 5.
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