Unions and learning: Lessons from the past for today
Tom Wilson, former Director of Unionlearn at the TUC, discusses the history of union learning and lessons for the next government.
Adult Participation in Learning Survey 2023
DownloadFor 27 years, the Adult Participation in Learning Survey has provided a unique insights into adult learning across the UK. It adopts a deliberately broad definition of learning, reflecting the fact that learning is about much more than formal courses and qualifications.
The 2023 survey shows almost one in two adults took part in learning in the last three years, the highest rate since the survey started in 1996. The increase in participation since the pandemic has been driven by a rise in self-directed learning, including online. This is often for personal or leisure reasons or general interest. This is clearly positive, but other opportunities to learn have become more limited over time: employer and Government investment in England are down in the last decade.
There is more positive news in the narrowing over time of some inequalities in learning participation between groups. This includes by age, important given our aging population. However, inequalities remain stark and persistent and, in the case of regional differences, may in fact have widened in recent years.
The biggest reasons adults give for not taking part in learning are cost, feeling too old, time pressures and also not wanting to / not seeing the benefits. That points to the need to build a culture of learning and offer people a range of flexible learning options.
Discover Lifelong Learning Week 2023
Part of our flagship Festival of Learning campaign, Lifelong Learning Week offers the opportunity for organisations, education providers and lifelong learning advocates to collaborate on conferences, talks, learning taster sessions and more.
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Place-based collaboration: an update from Aberdeen
As part of our partnership with Ufi VocTech Trust on the VocTech Challenge: Skills for an economy in transition, Zarin Mahmud discusses findings from an in-person workshop with key stakeholders in Aberdeen. -
Place-based collaboration: an update from Belfast
As part of our partnership with Ufi VocTech Trust on the VocTech Challenge: Skills for an economy in transition, Zarin Mahmud discusses findings from an in-person workshop with key stakeholders in Belfast. -
Celebrating New Futures’ impact in Tees Valley: Three prongs to success
With the Tees Valley New Futures pilot ending in December, Sally Gardner from Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) explains how the programme has impacted residents and the local economy. -
Place-based collaboration: an update from Hull
As part of our partnership with Ufi VocTech Trust on the VocTech Challenge: Skills for an economy in transition, Danny Price discusses findings from an online workshop with stakeholders in the education and voluntary sectors in Hull. -
From dreams to reality – reskilling into a career in tech
In this blog, pne of our New Futures Wales pilot participants tells her story of how she switched career into tech after reskilling and learning to code. Led by Chwarae Teg before it closed its doors in October 2023, New Futures Wales supported over 200 women to start tech training courses, setting many on a path to career change.