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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 briefing draws upon data from the 2001/2002 English Local Labour Force Survey and was produced in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) for Adult Learners' Week 2003. The analysis shows that there is an absolute need to focus on adults from minority ethnic groups and sub-groups who are under-represented in learning, particularly Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, as well as women from a number of minority ethnic groups. The report also shows that some communities, notably African and those with mixed ethnic origins, significantly outperform the national averages for participation. The data show that the educational system is dramatically more effective at serving the learning needs of some communities than others.

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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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Learning matters in later life. It enables older workers to sustain their productiveness in the workplace and adapt their experience and skills to changing contexts. Older workers matter: the age of retirement is increasing, and moving away from paid work is becoming more of a prolonged process, less of an abrupt transformation. People who carry on learning lead healthier lives: learning reduces morbidity, and delays the effects of Alzheimer's on learners' social interactions. Older people are civically active: more likely to vote, usually the mainstay of voluntary organisations.

This is a report of an authoritative scientific study of older learners, part of NIACE's series of annual surveys on adult participation in learning. It examines their subjects of study, motivations to learn, ways of finding out about, and getting to, learning; it reports on the benefits they perceive, the ways they learn, and their views on qualifications and fees; it identifies the key barriers to learning, the effects of illness and disability and access to technology. Practitioners and managers in adult learning, and educational researchers in general, will find this full and detailed review of crucial information about an increasingly important group of learners invaluable as a source of information and insight.

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The research data in this book indicate that, collectively, adults from Britain's black and minority ethnic communities participate in learning in similar proportions to the general adult population. However, this conceals significant differences between different minority ethnic groups, with some exhibiting extremely low levels of particpation in adult learning. It is clear that the challenge is most extreme for adults identifying themselves with the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities. For women, the rate is lower still. That said, it is comforting to note that the decline in levels of participation amongst Pakistani adults is less marked than for other groups. These findings are a challenge to the government's commitment to ensuring social cohesion and access to the labour market to all communities in the UK through lifelong learning.

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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

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 report concentrates on the needs of adults in the workforce, and in particular on the 70 per cent (in Britain) who have had no recent training or education opportunities, at work or elsewhere. NIACE argues that while the full costs of expansion of learning cannot be borne by government, it has a particular responsibility to build on employers' support in meeting the learning needs of the groups identified in this report. The report reviews current barriers to participation and evidence of what is being done now to meet the needs of the bulk of adult learners in the workforce, and makes a number of recommendations to government, employers, TECs and educational institutions. Show less

When account is taken of the younger age profile of Britain's black and minority ethnic communities, it is clear that the levels of adult participation in learning are strikingly low in some, but not all, groups. The different experience of different groups is the starkest finding: for instance, adults from Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities fare worse than all other groups. Yet it is clear that the apparent cycle of low or no qualifications and poor participation rates disguises deeper, more complicated truths. When Bangladeshi adults begin to get qualifications their participation rates soar; Bangladeshi and Pakistani adults in work are much more likely to learn than those outside it; and Bangladeshi and Pakistani adults are exceptionally active in self-organised as distinct from taught learning. These results leave room for sustained activity to ensure that all Britain’s communities can benefit from the government's commitment to securing economic prosperity and social cohesion through lifelong learning.

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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

The key message of the annual [National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (England and Wales)] NIACE survey on adult participation in learning for 2011 is that recession is bad for lifelong learning for anyone over the age of 25. The survey highlights the central importance of workplaces as sites of adult learning, and of the challenges posed to a learning society when opportunities to learn reduce. 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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