About This Publication
The major finding in the 2008 NIACE survey of adult participation in learning in the UK is that participation by groups targeted in the government’s learning and skills strategy has actually fallen.
Not only has there been a statistically significant drop in overall participation, but several key groups have been affected disproportionately: skilled manual workers, a group whose participation gains of the last ten years have been entirely reversed; fulltime and part-time workers; and 25–34-year-olds. Further, no increase in participation at all has been secured over the last ten years for those in socio-economic groups DE, the semi-skilled and unskilled workers, unemployed and retired people.
The findings pose sharp challenges for government. Despite the real gains of the Skills for Life and Train to Gain Strategies, the very groups identified as key to the achievement of the Skills Strategy and in the Leitch Review are bearing the heaviest burden of the re-balancing of funding. It seems that the price of investment in workplace learning for key groups of adults is being paid by reduced participation by other adults from exactly the same groups.
Not only has there been a statistically significant drop in overall participation, but several key groups have been affected disproportionately: skilled manual workers, a group whose participation gains of the last ten years have been entirely reversed; fulltime and part-time workers; and 25–34-year-olds. Further, no increase in participation at all has been secured over the last ten years for those in socio-economic groups DE, the semi-skilled and unskilled workers, unemployed and retired people.
The findings pose sharp challenges for government. Despite the real gains of the Skills for Life and Train to Gain Strategies, the very groups identified as key to the achievement of the Skills Strategy and in the Leitch Review are bearing the heaviest burden of the re-balancing of funding. It seems that the price of investment in workplace learning for key groups of adults is being paid by reduced participation by other adults from exactly the same groups.
Contents
| Acknowledgements | |
| Introduction | |
| Chapter 1 | Technical notes |
| Chapter 2 | Participation in learning |
| Chapter 3 | Participation in learning in relation to gender |
| Chapter 4 | Participation in learning in relation to socio-economic class |
| Chapter 5 | Participation in learning in relation to employment status |
| Chapter 6 | Participation in learning in relation to age |
| Chapter 7 | Participation in learning in relation to terminal age of education |
| Chapter 8 | Participation in learning in relation to ethnicity |
| Chapter 9 | Participation in learning in relation to occupational sector |
| Chapter 10 | Participation in learning and future intentions to learn in relation to nations and regions of the UK |
| Chapter 11 | Future intentions to learn |
| Chapter 12 | Future intentions to learn in relation to learning status |
| Chapter 13 | Future intentions to learn in relation to gender |
| Chapter 14 | Future intentions to learn in relation to socio-economic class |
| Chapter 15 | Future intentions to learn in relation to employment status |
| Chapter 16 | Future intentions to learn in relation to age |
| Chapter 18 | Future intentions to learn in relation to Internet access |
| Chapter 19 | Future intentions to learn in relation to occupational sector |
| Chapter 20 | Barriers to learning |
| Chapter 21 | Attitudes to learning |