1. What is to be done?
Challenges facing the adult sector
over the next few years

2. Quality Funding
Policy
TLA
Where does ‘e-learning’ fit in?

3. Early 00s…
The Learning Age green paper, 1998
"As well as securing our economic future, learning has a wider contribution…It
helps make ours a civilised society, develops the spiritual side of our lives and
promotes active citizenship ... It helps us fulfil our potential, and opens doors
to a love of music, art and literature. That is why we value learning for its own
sake as well as for the equality of opportunity it brings."

4. With opportunity for the sector came anguish for some…

5. Mid-late 00s…
2007: Under one roof…ALI becomes part of
Ofsted
2007- 2010 Projects
2007
PTTLS and DTTLS – Getting ‘professional’?

6. • Appointing e-coordinators
• e-learning ‘strategies’
• e-learning bids
• buying ‘kit’
• Setting-up VLPs
• Lots of templates for auditing the e-learning capacity of
organisations
• Lots of templates for auditing the e-learning capacity of
organisations
• Appointing more e-coordinators
What were (some) providers doing?

7. • But what did the learners experience?
• Was it the age of the ‘lone-ranger'?
• Did senior management teams ‘get it?’

8. 2009
John Denham, the secretary of state for innovation,
universities and skills, issues an adult learning white paper in
an era of austerity:
The Learning Revolution.
This "transformational fund" will invest in "innovative new approaches to reach and
engage new learners".
Informal Learning – everywhere!
The Guardian – March 2009…
‘For them the internet is the 21st-century tutor. But if they want to go further than
their screen, the white paper announces there will be a "web portal" through which
people can find opportunities and groups they did not know existed.’

9. Today…and tomorrow?
2011: New Challenges, New Chances
Adult Skills Budget replaces Adult Learner
Responsive
Community Learning replaces Adult
Safeguarded Learning
Community Learning funding:
• Maximise access to community learning for adults,
bringing new opportunities and improving lives,
whatever people’s circumstances
• Promote social renewal by bringing local communities
together to experience the joy of learning and the
pride that comes with achievement, and
• Maximise the effect community learning has on the
social and economic well-being of individuals, families
and communities

10. Community Learning Strategy:
• Set out how they will work in strong local
partnerships to make sure their identified
objectives are underpinned by the involvement of
communities, local authorities, Local Enterprise
Partnerships and other local stakeholders
• Have clear outcomes and appropriate measures
capable of being evaluated by their community
and local stakeholders
• Develop and put in place a robust financial
strategy that adds to their Community Learning
allocation

11. New outcome focused success
measures
“We want to see many more radical approaches to the
use of available educational technologies and will
ensure that the funding and regulatory system
encourages providers to innovate with online learning
alternatives to traditional delivery routes and blended
learning…

12. Questions and Opportunities…
1. What are the implications for curriculum/ service review and
planning?
2. What does TLA need to look like?
3. What are the implications for the role of the teacher and what
skills do they need?
4. How do we define and evaluate quality?
5. Where does the learner fit-in in all of this?
6. What is our expectation of the ‘learner’?

13. Equipping our teachers and trainers
• Revised professional standards - April
(The Education and Training Foundation)
• ‘It’s about work…Excellent adult vocational teaching and learning’
(Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching & Learning)
• ‘Paths forward to a digital future for Further Education and Skills’
(Further Education Learning Technology Action Group’)
• Your local Peer Review and Development Group

14. Concluding thoughts…
Key players have less resource but more focus
The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is more
important than ever but Outstanding is not enough
Getting qualifications and skills not enough – what next?
Only by working together as a sector can we use our
critical mass to not only survive but flourish