It’s not rocket science but….

1. UALL Staff Development NetworkThe Changing Landscape of Lifelong Learning in Higher EducationProfessor John Annette, Pro Vice Master for Lifelong Learning and Engagement

2. Moreover as higher education moves from being a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to a lifelong requirement which needs to be refreshed and updated across a lifetime, so it needs to be delivered in a more student-centered form- part-time as well as full-time, in the workplace, on-line, via distance learning and so forth. Despite much progress over the last decade in recognisisng the importance of lifelong learning, we are still some way from following through the implications. Widening participation will mean more than just persuading a greater proportion of non-traditional students to apply for university; it will mean adapting the content and delivery of higher education to make it more relevant to their needs. Sir Howard Newby ’Colin Bell Memorial Lecture’ 30.3.04

3. It’s not rocket science but…. • The Recession and the ‘logic’ of the ELQ decision • Demographic Downturn • Higher Tuition fees post election (£7K/10?) • Crisis of student support funding and the lower cost of student support for part-time students…. • Retention and the student experience’ • Reduction in student numbers and participation rate-how about 35% and HEFCE Review of ‘Widening Participation’ activities?

4. The Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning- NIACE www.niace.org.uk/lifelonglearninginquiry • Learning through Life, Tom Schuller and David Watson, 2009 • On average, over £8,000 is spent annually on education and training for each 18-24 year old. The equivalent figures are under £300 for an adult aged 25-50; £86 for those aged 50-75; and just £60 for an adult aged over 75. • Entitlements to learn across four stages of life – up to 25 years, 25-50, 50-75 and post-75 – each carrying broad but different priorities for work, leisure and health. • No distinction between financial support for full-time and part-time study and with advice and guidance for all who want or need it. • Flexible systems of learning when and where people need it – with progression through the accumulation of credit-based qualifications.

5. ELQ and the Decline of ‘Continuing Education’ • Is this the end of ‘liberal adult education’? Or is this now the preserve of the higher fee paying middle classes? • Is there evidence of non-ELQ recruitment for certificates of higher education? • To what extent have Cert HE’s been incorporated into Foundation Degrees?

6. Widening Participation, Retention and AchievementNational Audit Office report, titled 'Staying the course: the retention of students on higher education courses' is published on the Public Accounts Committee web-site. Denham Review: Paul Ramsden (HEA)‘Student Experience’ and ‘Non-traditional’ Learners including part-time learnersIs there a problem for mature students nationally, cf.Veronica McGivney,’Staying or Leaving the Course’,NIACE, 2nd edn.(2003)Importance of Achievement and not just retention- employability?

7. Widening Participation in Higher Education- Evidence? • National audit Office Report- June 2008 • NFER Evaluation 2009 -2010 • £392 million invested by HEFCE • Improvements in participation for some groups but not all groups as some groups are still significantly underprespresented- eg. working class young men? • HEFCE Review of Widening Participation? And ‘WP Strategic Assessments’2009-12

8. Lifelong Learning Networks • Progression Agreements and flow through of vocational learners • IAG and understanding of vocational learners • Unintended consequences- new diplomas 14-19 • FE/HE Partnership Working • Ending in present form 2009-2011 • Mature and part-time learning pathways

9. Lifelong Learning Networks • Brenda Little and Helen Connor, Vocational Ladders or crazy paving, LSDA, 2005 • Helen O’Connor,et.al.,Progressing to higher education: vocational qualifications and admissions, 2006 • National HEFCE Evaluation- Summer 2010

10. Leitch Report- ‘higher skills’ • The Government commissioned Sandy Leitch in 2004 to undertake an independent review of the UK's long term skills needs. The Review published its interim report "Skills in the UK: the long term challenge" in December 2005. • The final report of the Leitch Review , Prosperity for all in the global economy - world class skills, was published on 5th December 2006. • 40% of the workforce to have ‘higher skills’ at least level 4 by 2020

11. Employer Engagement - Leitch Agenda • What are ‘higher skills’? And what happened to Employee Engagement? • Co-funding in a Recession • Employer Partnerships and Foundation Degrees • Work Based Learning • Flexibility and the new learning • Fdf and the provision of a new lifelong learning

12. Curriculum Design and Higher Skills, Training and Accreditation • Parts of the whole but not the whole award/degree • Work Force Development and Partnership Working • APL/APEL models? Learning portfolios’s -how do you assess and accredit the learning involved. • Workbased Learning as the new basis of lifelong learning?

13. The New Politics of Lifelong Learning • Demography and the ‘rights’ of adult learners • The Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning (IFLL) found the current system too complex and opaque, too skewed to the young and de-motivating for too many. Educational inequalities accumulate over the course of people’s lives to an unacceptable extent. • £3.2 billion to be released for people over 25 – which can be achieved as youth numbers decline – without cutting per capita spending on schools or 18 to 24-year-olds. • Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning (CALL)

14. Whatever happened to the Learning Age? (1998- 2009) • In The Learning Age: a renaissance for new Britain, the government’s Green Paper published in 1998, the then Education Secretary, David Blunkett, stressed the hopes of and for lifelong learning: • (L)earning has a wider contribution. It helps made 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.