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Adult Learning in Scotland 2010
Reform, Inclusion and Investment
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Wednesday 24th March 2010
Sheraton Grand Hotel, Edinburgh
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Conference chair:- Professor John Field, Director of the Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning, University of Stirling
Keynote speakers:- Keith Brown MSP, Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning, The Scottish Government
- Professor Tom Schuller, Director, The UK Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning
- Sir Andrew Cubie CBE, Chair, Centre for Healthy Working Lives and Board Member, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education
- Morten Lassen, Head, Department of Economics, Politics and Public Administration, Aalborg University, Adviser to the Danish Government
Also presenting:- Marian Docherty, Depute Principal, Newbattle Abbey College
- Susan Walls, Deputy Director, Learning Link Scotland
- Sam Cassels, Schools Design Advisor, Architecture + Design Scotland
- Sian Fiddimore, Chief Executive, Access to Industry
- Rose Murdoch, Principal Officer, Community Serivces, Dumfries and Galloway Council
- Anne Gibson, National Development Officer, Schools and Youth Work, Learning and Teaching Scotland
- Dr. Pete Cannell, Depute Director (Learning, Teaching and Curriculum) , The Open University in Scotland
- Sylvia O'Grady, Lifelong Learning Manager, Scottish Union Learning
Adult and lifelong learning has always been vital in terms of global competition and finding ways for Scotland to maintain and develop our reputation as an education leader. However, adult education also contributes to personal development, as well as improved health and well-being.
As we deal with recession and its legacy, it is essential that all of our adult population have the necessary skills and education to succeed as individuals and also contribute to economic recovery, as well as reforming our system to reflect changing demographics. However, Scotland faces some serious challenges ahead as participation in lifelong learning in Scotland dropped from 38 per cent in 1996 to 33 per cent in 2009. With the combined effects of recession, an ageing population and a higher state pensionable age in the next decade we are set to see people living longer and retiring later.
Traditionally the focus of most government policy is on children and younger people – not just in terms of policy but crucially in terms of the funding available. As people get older the education funding available to them from government dramatically reduces. Yet older adults are the least likely to take up education and training and these age inequalities in participation are higher in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK. The recent UK Independent Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning found that only 1% of the education budget is spent on the oldest third of the population with the vast majority going towards those aged under 25. Experts argue that we urgently need to make better use of older people, for both social and economic reasons, as well as recognising the health and well-being benefits of learning.
Scotland’s disparate adult education provision, including workplace learning, local authority and voluntary sector, university and colleges, skills-based and more informal learning faces considerable challenges including: disparate and inadequate funding methods, changing demographics with a system that favours the young and advantaged, social exclusion and educational inequalities, health and welfare burdens, the separation of full and part time study and the complexity of the system.
Building on Holyrood’s Adult Learning conference 2009 this is not simply about education - it’s about the kind of society we want to create for Scotland.
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Conference development by: Duncan Thorp
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Upcoming conferences
| September 2010 |
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| October 2010 |
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| November 2010 |
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