The government's consultation on informal learning gives us, at last, a chance to talk about an enormous amount of adult learning without having to justify it in terms of qualifications or the nation's ability to fend of competition from the Far East. Strangely, it comes at a time when Further Education - FE - is becoming more determined to be seen as a single purpose system to boost skills for employment. The huge range of activities undertaken by FE colleges since they were incorporated are rapidly being trimmed and aligned with the skills messages of Leitch and Foster. Little talk of knowledge here, let alone education.
Within this there are many excellent FE colleges and it is right that their work should have the reputation it deserves. It often seems that they are only seen as Cinderella's by journalists and civil servants who sped from privileged schools to privileged universities honing their networking and opinion forming skills on the way.
So, is it one system? All the messages are that it is - and yet, with the Informal Learning review, are we seeing the re-emergence of the pre-1992 separation of Further Education from Adult Education?
Does that give us hope? It does seem we need some hope. The number of older learners clearly alienated by the government's education priorities is growing and quite vociferous. The percentage of adults over 65 studying with the WEA hasn't dropped - and yet the sense of education opportunities disappearing for older people continues. Less vociferous are people of working age who want to learn something unrelated to their employer's bottom line.
Perhaps the consultation will be an opportunity to reaffirm the value of adult education? There are some who see the document as an argument that watching TV or checking out a family history site is, in itself, the future of informal adult learning. The case for face-to-face social learning as an important part of civil society needs to be made.
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