About This Publication
In order to promote lifelong learning we need to give greater recognition and value to the huge variety of informal learning that is conducted in community settings.
This report is based on a short DfEE-funded study designed to explore the role of community-based informal learning in widening participation and starting people on a learning pathway. The study involved an extensive literature search, consultation with relevant organisations and individuals, with visits to a small sample of organisations and locations providing community-based learning activities.
The study show that informal learning plays a crucial role in starting people on a learning pathway. It also identifies the kinds of services, structures and conditions needed to develop learning pathways and encourage people to make the transition from informal to more formal, structured and accredited learning. However, it highlights the fact that educational progression, albeit a desirable outcome, is not necessarily the most important benefit of informal learning: the benefits to individuals, families and communities may be far more wide-ranging. The big question is how to demonstrate that value and convince policy-makers and funders that informal learning is something worthy of greater investment, not only in the interests of lifelong learning but also in the interests of community regeneration and helping excluded groups to develop their potential.
This report is based on a short DfEE-funded study designed to explore the role of community-based informal learning in widening participation and starting people on a learning pathway. The study involved an extensive literature search, consultation with relevant organisations and individuals, with visits to a small sample of organisations and locations providing community-based learning activities.
The study show that informal learning plays a crucial role in starting people on a learning pathway. It also identifies the kinds of services, structures and conditions needed to develop learning pathways and encourage people to make the transition from informal to more formal, structured and accredited learning. However, it highlights the fact that educational progression, albeit a desirable outcome, is not necessarily the most important benefit of informal learning: the benefits to individuals, families and communities may be far more wide-ranging. The big question is how to demonstrate that value and convince policy-makers and funders that informal learning is something worthy of greater investment, not only in the interests of lifelong learning but also in the interests of community regeneration and helping excluded groups to develop their potential.
Contents
| Acknowledgements | |
| Executive summary | |
| Introduction | |
| Section 1. | |
| Chapter 1. | Concepts and definitions |
| Chapter 2. | The role of informal learning in widening participation and starting people on a learning pathway |
| Section 2. | |
| Chapter 3. | Strategies and factors that assist learner progression |
| Chapter 4. | Responsive providers and systems |
| Chapter 5. | Provision and curricular strategies |
| Chapter 6. | Accreditation |
| Chapter 7. | The role of guidance in educational progression |
| Chapter 8. | Supporting learner progression |
| Section 3. | |
| Chapter 9. | Obstacles to learner progression and the development of progression routes |
| Section 4. | |
| Chapter 10. | Concluding observations |
| Chapter 11. | Points for policy-makers arising from the study |
| Chapter 12. | Points for education and training providers arising from the study |
| References | |
| Appendix 1. | Some examples of progression routes from Open College Network-accredited programmes within the Open College Network Centre, England |