L'enquête "Narrowing Participation" effectuée à l'occasion de la semaine des apprenant(e)s adultes de Grande-Bretagne par le National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) montre que la proportion d'adultes en apprentissage a augmenté de 1% entre 2008 et 2009. On signale par ailleurs que la proportion actuelle d'adultes participant à des activités d'apprentissage est à son plus bas depuis l'élection du parti travailliste en 1997. NIACE attribue ce déclin à l'adoption des stratégies de compétences (skill strategies) mises en oeuvre en 2003, 2005 et 2006 par le gouvernement.

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NARROWING PARTICIPATION FOR ADULTS IN LEARNING  SURVEY SHOWS

The annual Adult Learners’ Week survey of adult participation in learning of all kinds shows a sharply widening gap between the educationally privileged and the educationally excluded.

The survey - Narrowing Participation - published today (Friday 8th May 2009) by NIACE, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, shows that the proportion of adults currently learning, or having done so in the last three years, has risen by one per cent from 38 per cent in 2008 to 39 per cent in 2009.  However the proportion of adults currently learning in the UK  18 per cent  is at its lowest level since the Labour government was elected in 1997.

The widening learning divide is illustrated by the following findings:

• the highest socio-economic groups  ABC1s  are at least twice as likely to be currently learning as those in the poorest groups, DEs (25 per cent ABs and 23 per cent C1s are currently learning, compared with 11 per cent of DEs);
• current or recent participation by DEs has fallen to a 10-year low at 24 per cent, compared with 53 per cent for ABs;
• 20 per cent of ABs say they have done no learning since school, compared with 55 per cent of DEs;
• current or recent participation by C2s has fallen back to the level reported before the election of a Labour government in 1997 (33 per cent) after rising to 40 per cent in 2005;
• people in full-time (47 per cent) and part-time (49 per cent) work are more likely to report current or recent participation in learning than unemployed people (40 per cent), those who are not in paid employment (27 per cent) or people who are retired (16 per cent);
• current or recent participation among unemployed adults fell by three percentage points between 2008 and 2009, from 43 to 40 per cent, whilst the numbers of unemployed people have risen;
• current or recent participation among full-time workers rose by two percentage points between 2008 and 2009, although since 2002 it has fallen from 52 per cent to 47 per cent;
• the older you are the less likely you are to take part in learning, adults aged 2024 (61 per cent) are almost twice as likely as those aged 5564 (31 per cent), and more than three times as likely as adults aged 6574 (18 per cent);
• people who continued in initial education until age 21 or later are more than twice as likely (55 per cent) to take up learning as people who left at the first opportunity (26 per cent). The gap is even greater among current learners - those who left at 21-plus (22 per cent) compared with nine per cent among those who left aged 16 or younger;
• as in a number of NIACE surveys ethnic minority adults, overall, report higher current participation (26 per cent) than white adults (17 per cent), a pattern repeated when current and recent participation is added (44 compared with 38 per cent); and
• adults with no Internet access are three times less likely to take part in learning (just six per cent reporting current participation) than adults with any Internet access (22 per cent currently learning).

Alan Tuckett, Chief Executive of NIACE, said, “At first glance this offers comfort to government after months of criticism about the balance of its investment in adult learning opportunities. However closer attention to the survey’s findings tells a different and more worrying story. These findings are sobering for a government that has invested 52 per cent more in real terms in post-compulsory education and training since its 1997 election. After impressive gains in its first five years in office there has been a marked decline in participation since the adoption of its skills strategies in 2003, 2005 and 2006.”

He continued, “Overall, the 2009 NIACE survey suggests that the time has come for government to consider the price paid, in England at least, for its skills strategy. It is clear that the opportunity to gain a first qualification for a small cohort of the least qualified is bought at the expense of engagement by large numbers of others from the same groups.”

He ended, “A decade ago, Helena Kennedy summed up educational opportunity after school in Britain by arguing, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, you don’t succeed’. For far too many people in the UK that remains true  and the price is paid in restricted opportunities for them, for their children, and for our community life. No one should be denied access to learning in a civilised society  and to meet needs we have to have breadth as well as depth of opportunity, the chance to sate curiosity as well as the chance to achieve and progress.”

Source : National Institute of Adult Continuing Education www.niace.org.uk