The UK has one of the highest shares of under-qualified workers among OECD countries, and workers most impacted by forces of automation and the pandemic are often those furthest away from accessing lifelong learning opportunities. 

The RSA (royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce) and Ufi VocTech Trust (Ufi) have published new research on the lifelong learning landscape. It explains how we can address the skills crisis in the UK and build a society that enables, recognises and values learning for everyone.

What are the barriers to learning?

The report outlines some of the fundamental barriers that prevent adults from engaging in learning opportunities. These include situational, institutional, and dispositional barriers, as well as technological ones.

The research reveals that digital access and digital skills are foundational needs for learners. Over 50 percent of survey respondents identified access to broadband and digital devices as vital access to learning.

It was also found that confidence and learner identity that stem from learning experiences is another significant barrier for many. One-quarter of adults do not identify as confident learning new things and 17 percent of survey respondents identified a ‘lack of interest in learning’ as a barrier.

Also, situational barriers were found to disproportionately affect women who are more likely to have their learning efforts disrupted by caring responsibilities or competing time demands.

How can these barriers be overcome?

The report also identified the core motivations that help learners to overcome these barriers.

The most effective triggers to participation in adult learning were socially driven. Around one-third of survey respondents identified a ‘recommendation from a friend’ as a key trigger to learning.

The report makes several practical recommendations on how we can encourage more people to engage in adult learning which will in turn help us to meet societal skills needs:

  • Build foundational skills by providing access to hubs within community settings.
  • Improve access to digital learning by implementing a ‘minimum digital living standard’.
  • Build learner identity with quality-assured validation to recognise non-accredited learning.
  • Provide social supports and triggers by ensuring in-person support for people accessing or transitioning between learning.
  • Support blended, flexible and non-linear learning by funding ‘hybrid by default’ adult learning provision.

Tom Kenyon, Head of Enterprise Design at the RSA and author of the report, added “These barriers to learning exist for everyone, however, it is the most disadvantaged learners who are most likely to encounter them. The very people who have the most to gain from adult learning are the least likely to participate.”

Rebecca Garrod-Waters, Chief Executive of Ufi VocTech Trust added “Our report shows how we need to shift the debate away from specific industrial skill needs towards a wider understanding of adult learning that is more inclusive and speaks to the real motivations of adults who have not, up to now, engaged in formal learning.

“It also demonstrates that by addressing foundational access to technology and digital skills, by improving learning confidence and by speaking to people’s real motivations to learn, we have the capacity to address the UK skills crisis.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amelia Brand
Amelia Brand

Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.