WEA Education Blog

Skills Investment Strategy proposes funding changes for 2010-11

The Department of Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) has published the Skills Investment Strategy for the funding of Further Education in 2010-11. This is what has been called the Funding Priorities statement. The contents were trailed in the 'Observer' recently. It does include reductions in Adult Learner Responsive funding as well as in adult apprenticeship funding. Skills for Life funding will also be reduced - although with an expectation that volume of provision continues: 

"As capacity and quality of provision has developed significantly since the start of the strategy, this uplift will be reduced to 1.2 for all Skills for Life provision with the exception of Entry Level numeracy where it will remain at 1.4, reflecting the need to build capacity to support more learners at this level."

There are further limitations to the discretionary Learner Support Fund in relation to fees and ther 'assumed private contribution' i.e. fees, rises to 50%.

Two references to Specialist Designated Institutions:

“SDIs will continue to have transitional protection in recognition of their different mission, and how their provision continues to focus largely on activity more aligned with informal adult learning”

and

“We will consider how SDIs should be funded in the longer term as part of the wider Spending Review process”

Speak Up for Lifelong Learning in run up to the General Election

The whole country is getting ready for next year’s general election, but will funding for adult education and lifelong learning be high in the minds, and campaigns, of existing and aspiring MPs? Not high enough as far as the WEA, the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action, the Women’s Institute (WI) and Campainging Alliance for Lifelong Learning (CALL) supporters are concerned.

The WEA is leading an initiative in the run up to the general election to make sure that adult education is firmly on the national political agenda through local constituency work across the country.

WEA and its CALL partner organisations are inviting students, members, volunteers, tutors, and staff to get involved using the publication of the Report of the Commission on Lifelong Learning (see article in current CALL Bulletin) as an opportunity to begin a dialogue around adult education with local prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs).

The WEA will be organising constituency meetings to quiz parliamentary candidates on their parties’ attitudes to adult learning and what the parties plans are if they form the Government after the election.

The WEA is producing ‘A Speak Up for Lifelong Learning campaign pack’ which will be available for Friday 4th December. The pack will include:
·         What happens in the run up to a general election
·         How to find out about prospective parliamentary candidates
·         How to arrange to meet with local candidates
·         How to send a letter to candidates
·         Pointers on what WEA and partners are asking of politicians
·         Other supporting materials
 

Find out more on the WEA's website.

Learners - who called us that?

Over the last 10-15 years the term student has gradually been replaced with 'learners' -not happened in schools or universities and this has led some adult 'learners' to ask 'why?'.

Historically the WEA has used the term students. However, 'learners' is pretty solidly what government, inspectors and funders call the recipients of provision in the Learning Age. But what do adults on courses call themselves when they talk to friends, family or colleagues about their course? I find it hard to believe they say 'I'm a learner'.

Some WEA learners have clearly given this some thought. Here is a poem they wrote on the matter:

Most of the time we’re a jolly, hard-working crowd and happy to do our bit for the WEA.  But there’s one thing that gets our goat it’s being labelled “learners” – especially by people who tick boxes and deliver targets.  And of course there’s the paperwork too. That goes without saying.  We try hard not to complain but …

Ever the optimists, rather than moaning and groaning we penned this little ditty (with apologies for the rhyming couplets) dedicated it to WEA students and tutors around the world, had a little chuckle and moved swiftly on …

Ten eager learners

Ten eager learners

All feeling fine

The tutor brought the forms in

Then there were nine

 

Nine eager learners

Waiting for their fate

“Please complete in triplicate”

Then there were eight

 

Eight eager learners

Yes, learning can be heaven

But someone runs a cheaper course

Then there were seven

 

Seven eager learners

One is feeling sick

Performance targets to be met

Then there were six

 

Six eager learners

No-one wants to skive

But up went the course fees

Then there were five

 

Five eager learners

A knock at the door …

In comes Ofsted

Then there were four

 

Four eager learners

Bless the LSC (not!)

One dug her heels in

Then there were three

 

Three eager learners

One named Sue

She couldn’t get to class that day

Then there were two

 

Two eager learners

Raring for some fun

More forms landed

And then there was one

 

One eager learner

Sitting all alone

Why not call us people?

I might as well go home

 

 

'Control Shift' Conservatives policy on local government

LSIS has provided a useful summary of the Conservatives policy document on local government 'Control shift'. The summary can be downloaded here and the paper itself is available here.

It has a radical underlying theme and one which, if implemented, would have an impact in many areas. Adult Education may not be the first you'd think of but the concept of a 'general power of competence' going to local authorities. This could have a number of effects beneficial or otherwise. If nothing else, it suggests the Tories will fight the election claiming to massively devolve power and reduce process targets and agencies that supervise them.

LSIS on FE and the financial crisis - cool on Leitch?

LSIS, the Learning & Skills Improvement Service has produced a paper: 'The Financial Crisis and FE - stepping up to the challenge'. Download BriefGuidetoFEandthefinancialcrisis here (but note that it is 18 pages long!)

It has a section the Effects on Leitch agenda which has a rather valedictory tone:

"The Leitch agenda is the Government’s flagship policy on skills. It is based on the thesis that increasing the skills attainment of the population will increase productivity, skills attainment being measured by the proportion of the working-age population with qualifications. It also contends that employers and learners should determine the amount of provision in the system – only the courses they choose should receive public funding.

For the past couple of years, the Government has restricted public funding to courses that lead to full qualifications, to meet the Leitch measurements (even though many employers wanted smaller courses that did not lead to qualifications). In the autumn of 2008, the Government relaxed these rules, in an effort to support training and keep people employed during the crisis. Public funding can now be directed towards courses that do not lead to full qualifications.

In January 2009, the House of Commons select committee that oversees skills released a report highly critical of Leitch. It questioned whether there was sufficient evidence to argue that increasing skills really increased productivity, and whether qualifications really did indicate that a person possessed equivalent skills in a real sense. The report also criticised the machinery of government reforms, saying ‘the abolition of the LSC and the establishment of the Skills Funding Agency is likely to lead to considerable further disruption and the reward for this is as yet uncertain’. The report said of Train to Gain that it ‘will only achieve its aim of producing long-term improvements in competitiveness if its brokerage service is more closely tied to helping firms develop more ambitious business plans and more tightly linked to wider economic development and business improvement services’."

Continuing education at universities under further threat

The position of continuing studies programmes in some English universities is under immediate threat. This is due to the 'ELQ' policy introduced by the government. A statement from Reading University says:

"In September 2007, the Government announced the withdrawal of funding for students who are studying for a Higher Education qualification that is equivalent to, or lower than, a qualification that they have already been awarded (ELQ). This impacts most heavily on the University's School of Continuing Education public programmes, which are predominantly 10 week part-time open courses, and the Certificate in Higher Education."

It's ironic that this news is coming out in Reading and a number of other universities as the government launches its White Paper the 'Learning Revolution' with a commitment to increasing access to learning and open up educational institutions to more people.

Students on Reading's threatened continuing education courses have begun to organise themselves and produced a 'Let's save our brains' website on their campaign. You can visit it here.

'The Learning Revolution' White Paper launched

The long awaited White Paper on Informal Adult learning was published today by the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills. You can read it here 

The DIUS website says:

"Government recognises the profound importance of informal adult learning to people’s lives and our nation’s well-being. Informal learning can help people gain personal satisfaction, development and fulfilment. For the low skilled and with poor experiences of formal education, informal learning can be an important stepping stone to further learning, qualifications and more rewarding work. It can help keep people mentally and physically active and independent into old age. It can also bring people and communities together.

This strategy reaffirms cross-government commitment to informal learning and sets out how the Government will act as an enabler, capacity builder and connector to maximise the potential benefits. "

The WEA gets a couple of mentions and there is an important section recognising the role of the Specialist Designated Institutions - which includes the WEA. On these, the White Paper says:

"The expertise of Specialist Designated Institutions enables them to play a central role in the new informal adult learning vision. SDIs are a diverse group of distinctive institutions, recognised as centres of excellence whose reputation and reach extends beyond their local areas. They are City Lit, Mary Ward Centre, Working Men’s College, Workers’ Educational Association, Marine Society College of the Sea, Morley, Hillcroft, Ruskin, Fircroft and Northern College.

Overall, around 80% of their provision consists of informal adult learning. SDIs are funded directly by the Learning and Skills Council. Going forward we want to explore further the ways in which they will make a significant and demonstrable contribution to local partnerships and deliver the informal adult learning vision in return for public funding. For example, in addition to their own provision, SDIs will contribute to the new vision for informal adult learning by sharing their spaces, their expertise and their resources with other providers, including self-organised learning groups. The range of activity could include: 

• leading the way in the innovative use of technology in learning and sharing content online, potentially through collaborations with technology and media providers

• sharing with others their expertise in cross subsidising between income generating activity and programmes to reach out to disadvantaged groups

• enabling self-organised group leaders to share selected CPD training opportunities

• opening up their spaces for self-organised learning"

Successful CALL Lobby of Parliament

The CALL (Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning) lobby of Parliament was very successful today. There were hundreds of people involved including a very large range of students and a big WEA element.

 It’s been years since I’ve been on a Parliamentary Lobby. It is a fascinating experience and it is quite encouraging that there is still a system where, when enough people are concerned about something, they can raise these issues collectively within Parliament itself. After the lobby we all piled into a Committee Room in the Commons and heard (thankfully) brief speeches from a range of people including Trade Unions, the Women’s Institute, the Muslim Council and various others. An NUS speaker talked of a ‘broken and distorted’ system that is out of our hands and damaged by ‘bureaucratic tinkering’. She called for a ‘curriculum based on learning rather than qualifying’.

Richard Bolsin, the WEA General Secretary, was joint chair of the meeting. Unfortunately, two of the main CALL organisers, Ann Walker from the WEA and Paul Mackney (the CALL campaign coordinator) were unwell and couldn’t attend.

Towards the end a number of MPs spoke including David Blunkett who quoted his own foreword to the 1999 White Paper ‘The Learning Age':

“Learning enables people to play a full part in their community and 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 and are encouraging adults to enter and re-enter learning at every point of their lives as parents, at work and as citizens.”

Gordon Marsden, who is sponsoring the Early Day Motion, strongly welcomed the campaign and hoped that it would help adults to “learn more, enthuse more and communicate with each other” to overcome the ‘atomisation’ of the modern age. As reported in a previous post, the Shadow Skills Minister, David Willetts also endorsed informal adult learning, saying: “We mustn’t have a funding structure that restricts opportunities to people solely for a defined range of paper qualifications." He said he ‘completely agreed’ with David Blunkett’s quotation from the foreword to The Learning Age.

John Denham, the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, joined the meeting and spoke for 10 minutes before taking questions. It’s always difficult for ministers in these situations coming into a meeting that’s well underway, speaking when they haven’t heard the debate so far and accompanied by their little entourage of young staff furiously scanning the audience for policy clues. Had he been there for all the discussions he would have heard many valuable contributions that were well received. Of course, had he been there the dynamic would have been different. So, unfortunately he hadn’t heard about the difference ESOL makes to people and communities and the practical problems currently faced with this provision or in part-time adult learning overall in FE and HE. He hadn’t heard about the impact of rising fees on people with modest incomes or the difficultly for adults in taking on full or long courses.

In his speech he promised the imminent White Paper would be a “renewed birth to informal learning”. However, he then repeated his frequently used comment that ‘holiday Spanish’ was something that could no longer be a priority for public funding. This provoked a couple of angry questions from some in the audience who felt it overlooked the issues being discussed and the balance of funding for adult education compared to other government priorities. It was clear that the Secretary of State wasn't pleased with this exchange and was not very happy as he left the meeting - although he had been very positive about CALL at the start of his speech. A pity really as several speakers had been positive about his efforts before he arrived. Nevertheless, he must have seen the strength of feeling there is on the CALL campaign issues – even if he felt uncomfortable about how some people expressed it. Perhaps now one of his aides will suggest that the ‘holiday Spanish’ jibe be rested.

On the way home I checked and the WEA taught 14 Holiday Spanish courses in 2007-08 with 141 students enrolled. Three of these courses were targeted for adults with mental health difficulties. Overall, holiday Spanish made up only 0.14% of WEA provision that year.

The new White Paper may tell, I suppose. At the end of the meeting, after John Denham had left, Bob Fryer argued that, before publication, the Secretary of State would be best to test the content of that document against the celebrated Blunkett foreword of over a decade ago.

Conservatives challenge to 'paper qualifications'

Today has seen a bit of a media onslaught from David Willetts, the Shadow Skills Secretary, around the falling numbers of adults in education. This is an interesting development of the Opposition's policy over recent months and comes less than two weeks before the CALL Lobby of Parliament (see previous blog entry).

You can see his 3 minute interview with the BBC, click here - just count the times he refers (with little enthusiasm) to 'paper qualifications'. 

Are his points fair? From the experience in my family and others I know, I think the comments he makes on adults with learning difficulties is hard to refute. On falling ICT classes, I've looked at the WEA's figures. In 2005-06 we ran 1,511 non-accredited short ICT classes. Last year we ran 1,056 - a fall of 30% over three years.

It does seem possible, leaving aside the views of the different political parties, that the certainties of 'Full Qualifications' as a central element in Leitch is under challenge because of the fall in adult participation. This is now being combined with concerns to find flexible ways to use education and training to respond to the impact of the recession on individuals.

However, David Willetts didn't leave it there. He also said:
"Learning also brings health and community benefits that can reduce the pressure on public spending in other areas."

We'll have to see how this debate develops.

CALL and the Lobby of Parliament

The Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning (CALL) is lobbying Parliament on 25th February. Across the country the WEA is organising around this event and involved in local discussions on the campaign.

Ann Walker, the WEA's Regional Director for Yorkshire Humber, has a leading role for the WEA in CALL. She has prepared a powerpoint presentation which you can get here to make the case for adult learning. It also includes details of the lobby and how you can contact your MP around Early Day Motion 533 supporting the campaign.