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In January, the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills launched a major consultation on the role of informal learning in public life. To help to inform the consultation, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) added questions to its annual survey on adult participation in learning to find out how adults like to learn new things. The questions draw on the distinction between learning as 'participation' and learning as 'acquisition' - between learning gained informally, through discussion and reflection, and learning gained through structured activities where the learning goal, is explicit. The study confirms that, for learning outside of work, informal modes of learning are very importnat, and that learners prefer learning as participation to learning as acquisition, though they do find a wider variety of strategies useful than do learners at work. It highlights the importance and timeliness of the policy focus on informal learning, but also makes clear that learning through attendance at courses is still important for most adults. This is an important conclusion for the informal learning consultation: a blend of publicly offered classes and informal provision is the right mix for community based learning.

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The central findings of the NIACE annual survey on learning at work 2007 pose challenges for current Government skills policy. Whilst the Government lays stress on securing qualifications for people at work, the NIACE survey shows an overwhelming preference for less formal ways of learning to improve job performance. The British preference for informal ways of learning remains deeply ingrained, and Government should recognise this by encouraging a culture of learning and reflective practice in workplaces, alongside the drive to secure an increasingly qualified workforce. This document focuses on responsibility for learning and development and improving job performance through learning.

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This survey continues the series documenting adult participation in learning in the UK. Using responses of around 5,000 adults in the UK, it offers key findings, breaking down participation, trends in participation and future intentions to learn by gender, socio-economic class, age, employment and the regions. It provides up-to-date data as well as a valuable means for comparison over time.

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This year's [National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (England and Wales)] NIACE adult participation survey shows a sea change. After years of falling numbers, and an ever-widening gulf between the learning-rich and the learning-poor, there has been an upturn in the proportion of adults engaged in learning and in the number expecting to take part in the future. Current or recent adult participation in learning has risen to the highest level for a decade. Whilst this survey maps the continuing divide between people who have enjoyed the benefits of a good initial education and those who left education with little to show, there is evidence of a significant shift, most strikingly for working-class adults, and those who have had least benefit from learning to date. Is this the beginning of the Learning Revolution heralded in the government White Paper of last year? At the very least there has been a statistically significant shift in participation in learning of some kind, formal or informal, online or in the classroom or the workbench; there has also been a shift in people's plans to take up learning. As long as the learning divide persists this cannot be the Revolution; but it is definitely a change for the better. This survey continues the series documenting adult participation in learning in the UK. Using responses of around 5,000 adults, it offers key findings, breaking down trends in participation and future intentions to learn by gender, socio-economic class, age, employment and the regions. It provides up-to-date data as well as a valuable means for comparison over time. For the first time it includes a section on attitudes to learning.

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This NIACE report shows that the government's strategy to stimulate learning in the workplace, based solidly on improving the qualifications of the UK workforce, has so far failed to change workers' learning preferences. When seeking to improve their job performance, all groups, but particularly working-class and low-skilled adults, and those who have had little opportunity to participate in structured learning, still favour informal learning. The learning divide only narrows for learning as participation - learning by doing the job, or by observation and engagement with peers and supervisors at work. A complementary point was made in NIACE's 2006 analysis of learning participation by ethnic minority adults: the groups with the lowest levels of participation - Pakistani and Bangladeshi adults - strongly preferred informal and self-taught learning. 'Skilling me softly' also reports that the youngest and oldest adult learners are less enthusiastic about training courses than people in their thirties and forties, though it does seem that women are more open to almost all the forms of learning analysed than men. All in all it strongly suggests that informal learning has more to offer the country than our current policies adequately recognise.

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Related NIACE surveys on adult participation in learning are indexed from TD/TNC 86.387 to TD/TNC 86.389. Show less

This paper results from the role the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) played as the United Kingdom (UK) Information Office for the European Year of Lifelong Learning. It is a reflection of the issues raised during the year. The European Year of Lifelong Learning was intended to promote the advantages of lifelong learning to individuals, to promote effective links between businesses and education providers and to promote the European dimension of lifelong learning. It was successful in raising awareness of lifelong learning in the UK. Sections in this booklet offer an overview of lifelong learning, the European goals, UK priorities, European projects in the UK, maintaining momentum and suggestions for the future. Show less

Interest in the recognition and recording of achievement in non-certificated learning has grown in the UK and it is now at the forefront of debate in adult learning. The UK Department for Education and Skills (DfES) commissioned the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) to scope the territory of debate in England as it affects learning outside higher education. This discussion paper, developed in consultation with key players, identifies key areas of development and consensus. The contents are: Foreward; Background; What is driving the debate?; Fit for purpose...but whose?; Current understanding; The LSC and non-certificated learning; Beyond the LSC: the wider context for debate and development; Some final thoughts; References; Sources. Show less

This document outlines strategies to increase participation in adult learning and vocational learning in Britain. The author gives an overview of participation and cites startling examples of the impact of guidance on learning opportunities, employer's financial support for freely chosen study in the worker's own time, construction of effective pathways between general and certificated and vocational education, and use of broadcast media to stimulate readiness to learn. Each example supports the case for an 'inclusive learner centred strategy' that recognises the 'untidiness' of adults' learning careers. Systems must enable adults to move between general and vocational education, as their complex aspirations unfold. Show less

The 2004 survey on adult participation in learning interviewed a sample of 4,902 adults aged 17 and over in the UK about their participation in learning, media literacy and learning at work. This report focuses on the findings from two questions on participation in learning relating to respondents’ past, present and future participation in learning. Findings show that 19% were currently learning (the lowest of any year since 1996), with 38% having participated in some learning activity during the last three years and 42% of adults reporting they were likely to take up learning in the next three years. The survey also indicates that participation by older learners went down from 19% in 1996 to 14% in 2004 for 65-74 year-olds, and from 15% to 10% for the over 75s. The contents are: Introduction (technical notes); Participation in learning (in relation to gender, socioeconomic class, employment status, age, terminal age of employment, and nations and regions of the UK); Future intentions to learn (in relation to gender and learning status, socioeconomic class, employment status and age). Show less

Britain like other European countries is ageing rapidly, and just one in three of the new and replacement jobs to be filled over the next decade can be filled by young people starting work. Much of the responsibility for our social and civic life and for care in the community is taken by older people. Yet the gap between wealth and poverty, choice and the absence of choice, and a learning-rich and learning-poor life for older people is stark and growing sharper. This collection from leading figures in the field reviews the implications of demographic change for policy-makers, educational providers and for the workplace as it affects the engagement, retention and enrichment of older adults.

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The papers are: Demographic challenges: family structures and ageing / Tom Schuller (p. 5-26); The age of choice: a new agenda for learning and work / Stephen McNair (p. 27-38); Fit for purposes: do policies and planning work for older learners? / Judith Summers (p. 39-62); Older & bolder: the NIACE campaign / Jim Soulsby (p. 63-79); Older learners: a modest proposal / Alan Tuckett (p. 80-86). Show less