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MacDonald and Coffield look at the implementation and outcome of
enterprise initiatives introduced in Teeside in relation to 100
unemployed young adults in the age-range 16-25, within a political
ideology which has sought to change a dependency culture to one of
self-reliance. The young people studied are categorized with
reference to their attitude to, and experience of, work, and a
number of case studies are cited. An important aspect of the study
is that it is specifically concerned with ordinary young people.
The conclusions are worked out in terms of the changing culture of
work, government policies, the internationalization of labour
markets and the changing fortunes of young adults in Britain in the
1990s.
Lifelong learning has been an evidence-free zone for too long. It
has been under-researched and under-theorised. This volume, the
first of two, is the culmination of years of empirical work
undertaken for the ESRC's Learning Society Programme, a major
investment in lifelong learning research. It explores the ways
lifelong learning can contribute to the development of knowledge
and skills for employment, and other areas of adult life. In this
first volume, the contributors address the challenges to social
science researchers to study issues that are central and directly
relevant to the political and policy debate, and to take into
account the reality of people's lives. Each chapter gives an
overview of one project, describing its objectives, methods, main
findings and policy implications. Some of the main themes explored
include the education market post-16, key skills in Higher
Education, adult guidance services, and how knowledge can be
developed at work. In the introduction, these topics are placed by
the editor within the broad context of research and policy on
different types of learning societies and lifelong learning. The
evidence provided shows what policies are or are not working and
provides the basis for structural reform. Some of the conclusions
arrived at by the projects challenge fundamental assumptions of
current policy. The contributions demonstrate the value of
independent, critical research in an area which is awash with
unsubstantiated generalities, armchair musings and banalities
without bite. Differing visions of a Learning Society contributes
to the public debate on lifelong learning, and is essential reading
for politicians, policy makers, practitioners, academics and
researchers concerned in any way with lifelong learning.
The relationship between research and policy has recently become
turbulent and contentious. Into this charged atmosphere, five of
the projects form the ESRC's Learning Society Programme present the
implications of their findings for policy, and constitute a
powerful critique of current policy on lifelong learning in this
collection. For the first time, findings are presented from a major
new survey, commissioned by the Programme, which examined the
skills of a representative sample of British workers and found, for
example, an 'alarmingly high' mismatch between the demand and
supply of qualifications. Other chapters heal with the
fragmentation of provision for adult guidance, the financial and
psychological casts of lifelong learning for learners with
children, and the failure of the market principle in education to
create a national culture of learning. The report also contains
many practical recommendations. The new Labour government is
committed to introducing evidence-based policy and practice, and so
the present roles of researchers, policy makers and practitioners
will be subjected to intensifying pressure to change in the next
few years. These issues are debated in the first two chapters and
concerns are expressed about how easy it will be in future to speak
truth to power. The report is essential reading for all
politicians, policy makers, employers, trade unionists and
educationalists keen to create a culture of lifelong learning
within the UK.
How can opportunities for teaching and learning be improved to
ensure that many more people participate, gain qualifications and
obtain decent jobs? Will government policies enable us to achieve
these goals? What new ideas do we need to ensure a more inclusive,
equitable and efficient learning system? These are some of the main
concerns which underlie this thought-provoking book coming from a
major research project looking at how policies affect learners,
tutors, managers and institutional leaders in Further Education
Colleges, Adult and Community Learning centres and in Work Based
Learning sites. Post compulsory education in the UK has been
constantly restructured by the New Labour government and has been
subject to considerable policy turbulence over the last few years.
This book attempts to understand this important but poorly
understood sector by both talking to students and front-line staff
and by interviewing the officials responsible for managing
post-compulsory education and lifelong learning. By examining the
sector simultaneously from the 'bottom up' and from 'top down', the
authors show how recent policy is affecting three disadvantaged
groups - 16-19 year olds who have fared poorly in official tests at
school; unemployed adults learning basic skills; and employees at
work learning basic skills. The authors conclude that there are
serious failings and suggest principles and features of a more
equitable and effective learning system.
This report argues for a fundamental reassessment of the
significance of informal learning. Formal education and training
represent only a small part of all the learning done in schools,
colleges, at work, at home and in the community. Yet it is formal
learning which is at the heart of the government's unshakeable
determination to drive up standards by means of qualifications,
national targets and league tables. A hierarchy of different types
of learning has emerged with 'learning for earning' at the top and
informal learning at the bottom. This report concludes, however,
that an unjustifiable reliance on certification may serve to
alienate informal learners. These 'learning entrepreneurs' argue
that the formal training they receive is often dispensable, whereas
their own informal learning is necessary and is very much part of
who they are and how they interact with the world. A love of
informal learning which is not linked to certification or to work
appears to be a key characteristic of lifelong learners. The five
projects from the ESRC's The Learning Society Programme represented
in this report do not claim to be the first (but just the latest)
to have 'discovered' the importance of informal learning. There is
a long-standing tradition in the UK whereby policy makers,
researchers and practitioners readily admit the significance of
informal learning and then proceed to develop policy, theory and
practice without further reference to it. We need to break this
sequence by acknowledging that informal learning is not an inferior
form of learning whose main purpose is to act as the precursor of
the main business of formal learning. It is fundamental, necessary
and valuable in its own right, at times directly relevant to
employment and at other times not relevant at all. The potential of
informal learning will, however, only be realised if government,
companies and educational institutions reassess its central role in
the lives of all learners. The case for informal learning has still
to be won; indeed, it has scarcely begun to be heard. The necessity
of informal learning is essential reading for all politicians,
policy makers, employers, trade unionists and educationalists keen
to create a culture of lifelong learning within the UK.
Is lifelong learning the big idea which will deliver economic
prosperity and social justice? Or will it prove to be another
transient phenomenon? Picture lifelong learning, the editor
suggests, as making its way through three overlapping stages -
romance, evidence and implementation. Lifelong learning is
tentatively entering the second stage, where research evidence is
beginning to challenge the vacuous rhetoric of the stage of
romance. The findings from the Economic and Social Research
Council's programme of research into the Learning Society are
presented in two volumes, of which this is the second. The editor,
Frank Coffield, begins by surveying as a whole the findings of the
14 projects, and summarises them in a number of recurrent themes
and policy recommendations. The chapters which follow present the
aims, methods, findings and policy implications of six projects.
Volume 1 contains similar chapters on the other projects. Taken
together, the conclusions suggest very different ways of thinking
about a Learning Society and very different policies from those in
operation at present. The two volumes demonstrate from empirical
evidence the continuing weaknesses of current policies and make
proposals, based on hard evidence, for more effective structural
changes. This second volume presents findings from a national
survey of the skills of British workers, and it discusses both the
meaning of the Learning Society for adults with learning
difficulties, and the use of social capital to explain patterns of
lifelong learning. Other chapters present for the first time five
different 'trajectories' of lifelong learning, explore the
determinants of participation and non-participation in learning,
and examine innovation in Higher Education. Finally, two differing
visions of a Learning Society are contrasted. The first
extrapolates existing policies and practices into the next 5-10
years and finds them seriously wanting. The second option calls for
more democracy rather than technocracy and develops a kaleidoscopic
array of possible futures which find their source in the empirical
work of the 14 projects. These volumes are essential reading for
politicians, policy makers, practitioners, employers, and all
teachers with responsibility for lifelong learning.
This first report in the ESRC Learning Society series examines the
key processes of learning, as embedded in particular workplaces, in
organisational structures and in specific social practices. Why is
learning suddenly so important? How can the quality of learning at
work be improved? Instead of extolling the 'joys' of learning, the
authors explore the conflicts and barriers which organisations run
into (or create for themselves), even when they are trying to
promote greater learning among staff. Its strong comparative
dimension is illustrated in the discussion of, for example, the
construction industry in Wales which is compared with its
counterpart in Germany. The importance of this edited collection is
that it will help to transform fashionable phrases such as 'the
learning organisation' or 'lifelong learning' into practical ideas
and methods which could enhance the quality of learning in British
firms. Learning at work is important reading for managers in
Industry and Commerce, for TECs/LECs, Trade Unions and Chambers of
Commerce, for policy makers in the Department for Education and
Employment, for politicians, voluntary organisations and academics
specialising in the interactions between employment, training and
education, and for all those practitioners in firms, Colleges of
Further Education and training providers who are promoting lifelong
learning.
How can opportunities for teaching and learning be improved to
ensure that many more people participate, gain qualifications and
obtain decent jobs? Will government policies enable us to achieve
these goals? What new ideas do we need to ensure a more inclusive,
equitable and efficient learning system? These are some of the main
concerns which underlie this thought-provoking book coming from a
major research project looking at how policies affect learners,
tutors, managers and institutional leaders in Further Education
Colleges, Adult and Community Learning centres and in Work Based
Learning sites. Post compulsory education in the UK has been
constantly restructured by the New Labour government and has been
subject to considerable policy turbulence over the last few years.
This book attempts to understand this important but poorly
understood sector by both talking to students and front-line staff
and by interviewing the officials responsible for managing
post-compulsory education and lifelong learning. By examining the
sector simultaneously from the 'bottom up' and from 'top down', the
authors show how recent policy is affecting three disadvantaged
groups - 16-19 year olds who have fared poorly in official tests at
school; unemployed adults learning basic skills; and employees at
work learning basic skills. The authors conclude that there are
serious failings and suggest principles and features of a more
equitable and effective learning system.
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