Published: 13 May 2008

There has been a fall of 3% in the number of adults participating in learning in the last year. This is the headline finding of the annual Adult Learners' Week survey - Counting the cost - to be published on Wednesday, 14 May 2008 by NIACE. The survey shows the proportion of adults currently learning, or having done so in the last three years, has fallen from 41% in 2007 to 38% in 2008.

The survey illustrates that the drop in participation has affected some groups disproportionately, notably:

  • C2s' (skilled manual workers') learning has fallen from 40% to 33% in a single year, reversing their participation gains of the last ten years
  • full-time workers' participation has fallen from 51% in 2006 to 49% last year and to 45% in the current survey
  • part-time workers' participation fell from 55% in 2006 to 47% in 2007, and just 48% in 2008
  • the numbers of 25-34s learning has fallen from 50 per cent to 43 per cent in a single year
  • no increase in participation at all has been secured over the last ten years for those in socio-economic groups DE, the semi and unskilled workers, unemployed and retired people.

There is also a sharp drop in the number of adults planning to take up learning in the future (45% in 2006, 43% in 2007 and 36% in 2008) and surprisingly the fall is most dramatic among current learners (88% to 72%).

Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said, "This survey poses sharp challenges. Its major finding, that participation has fallen among key target groups for the government's learning and skills strategy, calls into question the balance of current policy instruments. One goal of policy is to engage those who say they have done no learning since school, the findings that over two-thirds of them agree that learning and training can have a positive impact upon their working and family lives yet just 15% plan to get involved shows the size of the task if the government's goals are to be realised."

He continued, "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. The findings suggest that the price of investment in key groups of adults in workplace learning is being paid for by reduced participation by other adults from exactly the same groups. This is either because other workplace learning opportunities are being offered to those already with higher skills, or because those adults can no longer access public provision they previously chose for themselves."

He ended, "Since the object of policy continues to be to secure increased investment by individuals, and employers; as well as the state, the survey suggests the time has come for government to count the cost, as well as the benefits, of its current policies for adult learning."

Counting the cost - the NIACE survey on Adult Participation in Learning, authored by Fiona Aldridge and Alan Tuckett, is published by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. The survey interviewed a weighted sample of 4,932 adults, aged 17 and over, in the UK in the period 20 February-20 March, 2008.

Adult Learners' Week, on 17-23 May 2008, is the largest annual celebration of adult learning in the UK.

This year will include the following national events:

  • Saturday 17-Sunday 18 May: Cultural Diversity Weekend
  • Monday, 19 May: Adult Learners' Week National Award Ceremony - QEII Conference Centre, London
  • Tuesday, 20 May: National Policy Conference Adult Learning and Culture - London Chamber of Commerce
  • Wednesday, 21 May: Quick Reads Learners' Favourite Award and Voice on a Page - The Globe Theatre, London
  • Thursday, 22 May: Learning at Work Day: What makes learning at work, work - at the Victory Services Club, Marble Arch, London
  • Friday, 23 May: Silver Surfers' Day

Find out more about this event on the Adult Learners' Week 2008 website.