‘Learning the lessons’ looks at the history of learning and skills policy, going back to the late 19th century. It is the third report produced as part of our Ambition Skills programme of work, supported by City & Guilds and NOCN, which considers the economic and social case for a higher ambition for learning and skills, and how we can achieve it.
This report provides a brief history of adult skills and education, looking at trends in investment and participation in adult learning, and common themes of policy over the decades. There has been no shortage of focus on these topics or concern that the UK should do better; all the way back to the 1882 Samuelson Royal Commission on technical education.
Yet learning and skills have been held back by too narrow a focus on learning for work and the publicly funded budget, along with increasing centralisation, constant chop and change, and lack of proper success measures. This has left the UK is middle of the pack internationally on essential and intermediate skills, holding back growth and opportunity.
Too often, learning and skills policy has been a merry go round, with short-lived repeats of previous approaches that don’t stand the test of time. Austerity means the proportion of adults in further or adult education is at its lowest since the Second World War. All of this needs to change.
Our Ambition Skills programme of work, supported by City & Guilds and NOCN, builds a shared vision bringing together stakeholders across the learning and skills sectors.
L&W’s Stephen Evans and Pearson’s Donna Ford-Clarke reflect on findings from our recent research on England’s occupational standards – of which there are now more than double the number in countries like Germany and Switzerland.
This research, supported by Multiverse, finds that access to training is a boon for people’s pay and careers. The training dividend is greatest for those on the lower rungs of the occupational ladder, helping them go further, faster.
Ufi VocTech Trust, in partnership with Adult Learning Wales, Newport City Council and Learning and Work Institute, have launched an innovative place-based collaboration to integrate education and skills development opportunities within the communities of East Newport.
Experts are calling on the Government to do more to get employers investing in training, as research reveals it’s a “boon for people’s pay and careers” – particularly for working class people.
Manchester City Council, BBC Studios Drama and Ed Balls have all picked up trophies in a striking ceremony held at the Barbican to celebrate the first-ever Get the Nation Learning Awards.
For nearly 30 years, the Adult Participation in Learning Survey has provided a unique insight into adult learning across the UK. It adopts a deliberately broad definition of learning. Discover our findings from 2025.
Experts are warning of a “workforce learning slowdown” as the long-running Adult Participation in Learning Survey records a sharp contraction in the number of adults learning nationally.
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