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8.0 Offering Learning Opportunities Throughout Life
If our country is to realise the First Minister's vision of unlocking the potential its changing age profile offers, Scotland's internationally recognised tradition of learning has to be adapted in the 21st century to meet the learning needs of a different population.
Most people retain a capacity to learn throughout their lives. Some will want to engage in learning for its own sake, purely for pleasure; others will want new skills for their lives outside work, for example to help them with their volunteering activities. But as more people are likely to work for longer, many will seek new learning and skills that relate to employment: some so that they can stay on their existing career path for longer, others may choose to change direction at some point, or to change pace.
"…we can be certain of one thing. Scotland will be better placed to shape and signpost our future direction if each and every one of us is better educated and able to learn throughout our lives."
The Rt. Hon. Jack McConnellMSP
First Minister of Scotland
Learning can and does support all of these ambitions and it is the challenge of the coming years to ensure that all those who deliver learning in Scotland are equipped to deliver the kinds of learning that the whole of the population requires, in a way that is accessible to all.
The Scottish Executive's Lifelong Learning Strategy (Scottish Executive, 2003c) has the objective to create a system of learning provision within which people of all ages, backgrounds and capacities can move and progress freely through different episodes of learning throughout their lives. Underpinning this is the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework ( SCQF), which aims to ensure that more of a person's learning is captured and recorded so that learners, employers and others can understand and compare what an individual has achieved.
Individual Learning Accounts Scotland is an alternative funding source for learning that can be used by older learners. Already nearly 10,000 people aged 50+ have made use of an Individual Learning Account since the ILA Scotland scheme was launched at the start of 2005. One in three ILA-funded learners is an 'older learner,' ILAs have proved particularly popular with older women, nearly a quarter of all ILA learners are women aged 50+.
We are currently looking at a range of issues related to lifelong learning that will help us to refine and develop our approaches to learning in the future. The recently published Leitch Review of Skills in the UK will feed into this process ( HM Treasury 2006).
Universities, colleges and others make no distinction in terms of age when applying their admissions criteria, and students of all ages from 16 can be found at our institutions. Student support arrangements are currently being reviewed, with consideration being given to eligibility criteria for student loan support for older people.
For some older people participation in learning can be limited by lack of knowledge about learning opportunities; by the timing, location or availability of courses; by concerns about affordability or personal circumstances; or simply by a fear of starting learning again. Research by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education ( NIACE) on the benefits associated with learning for adult learners showed increased confidence, new friends and contact with other people, direct health benefits and new employment or voluntary work as direct benefits. 87% of respondents reported benefits to their physical health and 89% of respondents felt that they had experienced positive emotional or mental health benefits from their period of learning (www.niace.org.uk).
If older people are to gain as much as possible from education and skills training, support will be required, with a personalised, multi-agency approach most likely to help.
We will continue to support lifelong learning through our Lifelong Learning Strategy and through the following actions.
We will develop new approaches to encourage and support lower skilled workers to improve their skills and employability.
We will look to learndirect scotland to provide information on learning opportunities for older people (learndirect scotland provides a generic service to the population of Scotland but focuses particularly on individuals who have the greatest barriers to learning and are least likely to engage in post-school formal learning).
Through our Lifelong Learning Strategy, we will encourage additional opportunities for older learners, working with our colleges and universities to ensure that they can respond to the demand from 50+ learners in their approaches to recruitment and admission.
We will work with Student Awards Agency Scotland and learndirect scotland to produce information, advice and guidance targeted at older people. We will work together to develop a series of targeted information leaflets on learning and financial support for learning for people aged over 50.
We will explore, within current reviews of Further and Higher Education, ways in which more older people could have an opportunity to participate in learning later in life.
We will explicitly include older people in the Executive's review of learner support for part-time study and ensure that any new arrangements do not exclude them.
Case Study: University of Strathclyde - Learning in Later Life Programme
The Learning in Later Life Programme at the University of Strathclyde is 20 years old this year and currently has a student population of over 2,500. It is the largest programme of its kind in the UK and has an international reputation for offering high quality learning programmes for older adults.
Case Study: Older Learners Programme - Experience Counts
"Experience Counts" seeks to encourage Sector Skills Councils ( SSCs) to collaborate with colleges and other learning providers to develop and deliver bite-size or taster courses aimed at the older learner (aged 50+) within their sector. Funding totalling £556,000 has been made available for the financial years 2005-2008 to:
- encourage partnership working between SSCs, learning providers and employers;
- support training needs analyses targeting the skills needs of the 50+ workforce with particular emphasis on employability skills;
- encourage older workers back into learning - to make them more productive in their current job and raise their confidence to acquire new skills;
- support the development and delivery of learning opportunities in response to the outcomes from the training needs analyses.
The Scottish Executive is considering how best to build on the Experience Counts programme.
Future Challenges for the Learning Sector
Scotland has a strong track record in education. In recent years this has rightly been focused intensively on the education and development of young people, but Scotland's ageing demographic will present new challenges and opportunities to Scotland's learning sectors.
Over the longer term, we will need to develop new learning tools and products aimed at developing adaptable skills for all aspects of life, from working life to consumer decisions and personal finance. We may also need to consider new ways to ensure access to a wide range of learning provision that will suit the differing learning needs of Scotland in the future. Our ageing population may be more likely to engage in career shifts, to move into combinations of paid and voluntary work, or move into increasing leisure time.
To help build the learning nation of the next twenty years, the knowledge and skills-based learning providers will need to consider their future strategies now and prepare to play their part in the continuing development of our ageing population - as well as continuing to seek the best possible outcomes for children and young people. The learning sector has the potential to level the playing field between the generations and to create success in the global economy. Through learning, we will also be able to build Scotland's reputation as a country with high levels of social and intellectual capital - a place to come to and be stimulated and developed by the learning culture that we provide and nurture.
Challenges for the learning sector
- Managing the development of a learning culture predominated by older people while maintaining Scotland's excellent schooling and education of children and young people
- Supporting the development of adaptable skills for the new global economy and for a shifting work-life-leisure balance as the population ages
- Articulating and delivering its role in Scotland's future knowledge-based economy
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