13.41 Investment in staff development and training will be essential if the vision of a culture of lifelong learning for all is to become a reality. Staff will need the highest order of skills to stimulate learning, support learning and engender the habits of lifelong learning amongst those whom they teach, guide and advise. Staff will need training in new ways of working, widening participation and making use of the new communication and information technologies. They will also need opportunities to be lifelong learners themselves.
13.42 All of these skills, and their development, will be as necessary amongst part-time as well as full-time staff, and amongst those staff who make only occasional contributions to learning in schools, colleges and universities. In this, staff themselves will represent a major resource in achieving the changed culture argued for in this report. The policies of learning providers, as employers, need to reflect this proper valuing of staff of all kinds, in their policies for employment, development, reward and promotion. To underpin this, it would make sense for providers to develop their own performance indicators against which to measure their own achievements in respect of staff training and development to promote lifelong learning.
13.43 Priority should be given to staff training and development by all providers of lifelong learning, and to monitor this by the establishment of appropriate performance indicators. In partnership with the major funders and providers of learning, Government should establish a strategy for expanding the teaching force in lifelong learning, and improving the relevance of their skills. They should set a target year by when all tutors employed in publicly funded programmes should have taken part in recognised and high quality training and development, with many more achieving an appropriate qualification for teaching adults. It should also establish funding arrangements for the training of teachers of adults in all sectors and agencies.
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