6.1 One way of tackling the obstacles and of creating a culture of lifelong learning for all is to build on the successes of recent years. These include substantial improvements in achievement at school, the growth in young people remaining in education beyond the minimum leaving age, the establishment of the National Targets for Education and Training and the welcome initial progress towards them. It embraces the early successes of the modern apprenticeship scheme and the raised profile of key skills led by the Basic Skills Agency. In broadcasting, we have seen the introduction of television's 'learning zone' and campaigns to promote basic skills in the use of computers.
6.2 Most remarkable has been the dramatic expansion of further education, with its major contribution towards vocational training nationally and the attainment of skills. According to data published by the National Audit Office student enrolments in further education rose by over one-third between 1992/93 and 1996/97 when they totalled just over four million. Already over one third of all sixteen year olds participate in the further education sector and over two thirds of further education students are over nineteen years of age. Today there are as many undergraduates following higher education courses in further education colleges as there were in universities at the time of the Robbins Report. Working in partnership with employers and other providers, and through collaborative provision, further education colleges already also represent a major resource in the improvement of workplace skills.
6.3 There has been very rapid growth too in the student population of the universities, including many more mature and part-time students and those gaining access by new routes. Universities, including the hugely successful Open University, also make a distinguished contribution to national and international excellence in lifelong learning through such diverse activities as continuing professional development, short courses, the work of continuing education departments and through many practical applications of research to industry and the community. In seeking to establish the Learning Society, the contribution of higher education will be vital, with its principal concern with the nature, extension and application of knowledge, including where this is contested.
6.4 There can be little doubt that both further and higher education are already making an important contribution and that they need to be central to any new strategy designed to establish a culture of lifelong learning for all in this country.
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