- Conference
- 2021 Virtual Special Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 25 March 2021
- Decision
- Carried
This conference knows the importance of lifelong learning. Education does not end once we hit 18, in fact learning has barely begun. Further education colleges, at the heart of their local community, are the key to ensuring that adults have opportunities to learn and develop throughout their lives.
The UK faces many challenges in the coming years due to the pandemic will face more as new technologies, new industries and new ways of working continue to emerge.
Yet adult education is in a worse state than we have seen for many years. In January 2020 the Learning and Work Institute released data showing that the number of adult learners has plummeted by nearly 4 million since 2010. Reversing this will be the key to boosting productivity and enabling people to adapt to the huge economic changes brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The �skills for jobs white paper, published in January 2021 announces that FE colleges will become focused on providing for the needs of skills needs of local business. But lifelong learning is not just important to the local economy; adults who take part in learning are likely to have better health, physical and mental and wellbeing and to be more active in their local communities.
In addition to the decline, the Learning and Work Institute survey shows deep inequalities in accessing learning. Adults who are unemployed or work in lower paid, lower skills jobs are half as likely to take part in learning as those in professional occupations. Adults who left school at 16 are half as likely to take part in learning as those who left at 21. In the past many of those adults had a second chance to develop their learning through courses funded through Union Learn. Now this anti-trade union, anti-workers rights government in Westminster is planning to take this funding away.
As we move towards a post-pandemic world we need to invest in people. We have seen first-hand the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on the incomes and the mental wellbeing of those with lower level of skills. We cannot allow these inequities to become embedded.
This conference calls on the Service Group Executive to:
1)Promote the importance of adult learning with our partners;
2)Campaign to promote adult learning using examples of successful people who engaged with learning as an adult;
3)Work with politicians locally and nationally to raise the profile of adult learning;
4)Work with the equalities team to promote awareness of the importance of adult learning;
5)Influence the National Retraining Scheme through the TUC;
6)Promote the offer from UNISON�s Learning and Organisation Services team to support UNISON members in their learning;
7)Engage with campaigns to save UnionLearn funding.