WEA Education Blog

WEA in Ofsted annual report magazine

As mentioned in a previous entry, Ofsted's magazine for Adult Learning - 'Talisman'  has a summary of Adult & Community Learning Provision which includes the following article (written by us!) on the WEA. I thought it would be worth copying here at the end of 2008:

"The WEA is Britain’s largest voluntary sector provider of adult learning, reaching 70,000 individual learners in England each year, plus a further 10,000 or more in Scotland. We organise courses in local venues in hundreds of communities through the shared values of our volunteers and staff. Much of our funding comes from a single contract across England with the Learning and Skills Council, which we manage through allocating targets amongst our nine regions (coterminous with the Government Regions) and monitoring performance.

Our provision

The best quick way to describe our provision, which includes a vast range of course subjects across the country, is through our three educational strands. Every WEA course in England its in one of these three strands, through which we plan to meet the intentions of learners and the different contexts within which they make their choices about joining courses.

 §         Second Chance to Learn: this is about adults with ‘few if any educational qualifications’ and helping them gain nationally recognised qualifications. Thus it will range from ‘first steps’ to – potentially – an Access to Higher Education Certificate.

 §         Community Involvement (46% of provision): this is about helping adults achieve a wider range of outcomes through purposeful education. These include improved health and well-being, better communication skills in situations like signing and lip reading, extending volunteering in schools, activism in unions and other roles and the capacity to take part in community activity etc. Again there is an emphasis on disadvantaged students but using a wider definition that includes health, social, economic and other factors.

 §         Cultural Studies (36% of provision): this strand is designed to attract all adults with a ‘love of learning’ who want to develop an understanding of a subject for ‘its own sake’ and wish to be involved in the planning and delivery of the provision.

 Self-assessment, inspection and improvement

The WEA in England is inspected as one provider - leading to large inspection teams. Over the last four years we have developed a peer network of educational managers who work together to lead self-assessment and improvement. This arose from the organisation and support needs of inspection but soon developed a continuing value to the WEA. Self-assessment and inspection can be costly and complex compared to single-site or single-city providers. We use teleconferencing extensively to manage the communications involved and the Ofsted team used our teleconference system for end of day 'meetings', with inspectors calling in from up to six locations. 

As we have improved our work over the years, we have come to value this networked management approach. We supplement this with standard data and performance measures and have improved our work by focusing on key strategic or systemic improvement objectives. We have found that identifying the right big improvement issue and then working as a team on actions needed is more effective than creating very detailed, centralised plans. This is particularly important given capacity issues created by increasing regulatory demands often designed around full-time young learners on full-time qualifications.

 The WEA is a highly responsive provider of adult learning. Our partnership working is extensive and almost second nature. We are a committed mission based organisation, but we want to be judged by external standards too. We are proud that the impetus of external inspection combined with the fantastic commitment of staff, tutors and volunteers means we continue to improve our provision and remain a distinctive provider and non-conformist voice for adult education in a period of great turbulence and uncertainty."

WEA News - December 2008

The latest edition of WEA News has been published with a wide range of short articles on the Association:

The new Omega Centre in Portsmouth

Culture of Fashion in Liverpool

The Tandrusti project in Dudley

Black History month in London

Various anniversaries and an article from the Shadow spokesperson on Innovation, Universities and Skills.

One of the biggest pieces of news is that we have had over 16,000 new members since September as part of the new scheme. 

If you haven't had it from any other route you can download it here: Download WEA News 19

Ofsted concerns on quality in Adult Community Learning

The Ofsted Chief Inspector's Annual Report for 2007-08 has been published. You can get the full document here.  
The section on Adult and Community Learning probably most relates to the WEA's work. It prints to a single page and you can get it here: Download ACL page in CIAR 07-08
It's a bit worrying. Overall inspection grades are only satisfactory and are declining, ESOL is weak and Family Learning is less good than previously. There are clearly concerns in Ofsted that ACL is a sector that's really beginning to struggle.
Within that picture, the WEA's inspection last March looks good, although we are still only satisfactory in Skills for Life including ESOL. There is a feature on the WEA in the current Ofsted magazine 'Talisman' which you can get here: Download WEA in talisman 71
The concerns raised by Ofsted are ones we need to look at hard ourselves: falling learner numbers, little reliable progression data, planning and monitoring of progress in non-accredited courses.

There has been a decline in non-accredited provision and some of these issues may be a symptom of trying to see ACL as all part of one FE system when the other elements of that sector are now self-defining well away from the areas of ACL strength. The Informal Adult Learning proposals are due out from Government soon and it will be interesting to see how these quality issues are considered in a policy framework which has placed considerable distance between the main 'Skills' agenda and provision which is often assumed to have few tutors let alone high quality.

What is 'self-organised learning'?

As a follow up to the Informal Adult Learning consultation, the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills is looking to develop proposals around:

·          securing a national vision for self-organised learning

·          developing a cross-Government strategy for self organised learning

·          encouraging public provider support for self organised learning.

What do we think about this? Is it necessary? Is self-organised learning also self-funded learning? How does it link to wider issues and who isn't involved? I have replied as follows:

Self Organised learning happens throughout the continuum of Informal Adult Learning. It ranges from the most informal - book groups, etc. through more structured Community Led provision including study circles and provision organised by volunteers and communities engaging teaching experts to work with groups (see Raymond Williams letter to WEA tutors in 1961 Download Raymond Williams an open letter to WEA tutors). It is more than community responsive.

 This is a long tradition in the UK and elsewhere (see everyday-democracy.org)

 How should the government approach this in policy and resource terms?

a)         Recognise and value all self-organised learning activity and facilitate its success and future as simply as possible

b)         See this as part of the government's determination to pass power into the hands of communities and local people; to encourage vibrant local democracy in every part of country and give real control over local decisions and services to a wider pool of citizens (Communities in control: real people, real power)

c)         Concentrate resource priorities on maximising inclusion and the capacity for self-organised learning particularly amongst disadvantaged communities; supporting high quality provision; encouraging democratic methods and objectives

d)         Self organised doesn't have to mean no tutor. In fact, the continuum should include re-engaging Universities in community led activity alongside world class degrees, research and business engagement. This model would promote the value of serious learning in communities and provide good models to encourage young people to progress to their city's university.

Self organised learning across the continuum has a key part to play throughout public service and government policy. It can reconnect communities with government and services, develop civil society, social cohesion, innovate, be highly cost effective. It can maintain the viability of an infrastructure of community venues and spaces.

In valuing this and using any public resource we need a model that allows for difference to develop without excessive regulation. In particular, we should accept that self-organised activity in a democracy is bound to be untidy compared to public service commissioning. Moreover, we should look and celebrate for high standards rather than high cost standardisation.

I think DIUS should have the leading role in coordinating this across government. It reaches right through its agenda from the neighbourhood to the university. It will rely on partnership and bringing many people/voices into the ongoing thinking. It places learning (across the continuum) at the heart of an approach to re-engaging with the public and genuinely devolving decision-making in an educated democracy.

From Tawney to Tandrusti

It's 100 years since Richard Tawney began his historic Tutorial Classes in Longton and Rochdale and, last month, there was an excellent event in Stoke Museum and Art Gallery to celebrate. I was struck by the idea that the WEA has been working in these communities for over 100 years and that, although what we do now is different to what we did then, there are some important common themes. In the case of our work now and then, partnership is key - whether with a university, a local authority or a primary care trust. Moreover, its a true partnership where the WEA works with communities to articulate a need and where the communities themselves are partners in shaping the provision involved. Secondly, good tutors and staff who understand their subject and the needs, issues and aspirations of adults coping with inequality and disadvantage and are at ease working in these situations.

 The West Midlands Region of the WEA has been transferring lessons drawn from its Tandrusti work in Dudley  to its work in communities in Stoke on Trent. These characteristics are strongly evident in this approach and in some research work undertaken that arose from it (Download Tandrusti Research).

Since the completion of the Informal Adult Learning consultation, the Department of Innovation Universities & Skills has been exploring the potential of self-organised learning. You can look at that idea in two ways: one as a cheap and cheerful solution; the second as an important way to build social cohesion and re-connect with adults enthusiasm to use education to change their lives and improve things for their families and communities. That needs more than a commissioning approach and a set of contract focussed providers - it needs a commitment to engaging with  communities and forging alliances with progressive elements (often individuals) in education and public services that respect people and wants them to shape change.

We need to find a way to persuade government of the value of this second approach to self organised learning.

LSC Adult learner Priorities for 2009-10

The LSC has published its Statement of Priorities for 2009-10. The whole document is available here. It's 66 pages long. The key pages for adult learning and the WEA are from 30-40 (which you can access here: Download LSC Adult Priorities extract)

Important for the WEA will be the section on page 35 regarding Specialist Designated Institutions. However, on other pages, the increased flexibility in Train to Gain, addressing the needs of unemployed adults, literacy, numeracy and ESOL, Foundation Learning Tier, fee income, the Framework for Excellence and Equality & Diversity are all significant areas the WEA needs to work on.

10 years on from 'The Learning Age'

It has been ten years since David Blunkett's Green Paper: The Learning Age: A renaissance for a New Britain (DfEE 1998) with its famous preface which included:

“As well as securing our economic future, learning has a wider contribution. It helps make ours a civilised society, develops the spiritual side of our lives and promotes active citizenship. Learning enables people to play a full part in their community. It strengthens the family, the neighbourhood and consequently the nation. It helps us fulfil our potential and opens doors to a love of music, art and literature. That is why we value learning for its own sake as well as for the equality of opportunity it brings."

Lucia Quintero and Alan Tuckett (the Director of NIACE) have produced a short article summarising English Adult Education policy over the last decade. The article has been produced for CONFINTEA VI, the sixth International Conference on Adult Education, which will take place from 19 to 22 May 2009 in Belém, Brazil. It's attached here:  Download 08-Quintero

The article concludes by saying:

"Overall, warm aspirations of the early years of a Labour Government have given way to a more narrow utilitarianism – which is of course of benefit to those people whose needs are met by Government programmes. However, the spirit of CONFINTEA V, so warmly embraced by the Government’s early programmes, now seems a lifetime away. This of course leads to a new challenge for non-government agencies and adult educators: to advocate for adult and lifelong learning in the context of changing priorities for public funding."

I'd recommend this as a quick updated for anyone involved in that advocacy of adult and lifelong learning.