4. Stimulating demand

4.1 Too often policy development and implementation centre only on the supply sides of learning. A central objective of the campaign we advocate, and a defining feature of recognisable cultures of lifelong learning, must be marked growth in demand for lifelong learning, especially from those currently largely unrepresented or not involved in learning of one kind or another.(16) This will be key to the success of the University for Industry and should be at the heart of its corporate plans and implementation strategy. It is crucial to get people started by strengthening their self-confidence and eslf-esteem and giving an impetus to their involvement in Lifelong Learning.

4.2 Over the last decade, there has been a series of studies which have suggested that somewhere between a quarter and one third of all adults in this country take no part whatsoever in systematic or structured learning.(17) We would caution against adopting a too narrow or formal definition of learning - not least because if people do not recognise and identify themselves as 'learners' partly because of its limited definition, they will not make that essential gain in confidence and self-esteem which brings them to the 'starting line'. Nor will they be spurred on to reflect on the lessons of learning and build upon it further.

4.3 Learning can take many forms, both formal and informal. It can include developing a variety of skills, abilities, competences and problem-solving capacities. It quite properly includes acquiring new information and knowledge, as well as the pursuit of credits and qualifications through programmes of study more conventionally recognised as 'learning'. However, even amongst those currently involved in learning, engagement for many is still only marginal.(18)

4.4 There is nothing inevitable or unalterable about this. Events such as Adult Learners' Week show how an effective combination of media promotion, local initiatives and targeted activity can stimulate people to participate. Where they operate, Employee Development schemes and programmes such as UNISON's Return to Learn have begun to reverse the under-participation of unskilled and semi-skilled workers. The BBC's 'Computers Don't Bite' and Family Literacy campaigns have also demonstrated that innovative forms of promotion linked to supply can increase demand for, and involvement in, learning activities. But, by their nature, initiatives such as these have only limited coverage or lifespan. What is needed is a more sustained campaign.

4.5 Part of the responsibility for changing culture and stimulating much greater demand rests with the main dispensers of public funds, as well as providers themselves. We welcome the initiatives already taken by the funding councils for further and higher education to reward those institutions successful in widening participation. They should now move to setting clear targets and associated performance indicators for reaching different groups of potential learners and require every institution they support do so for their own provision.

4.6 We welcome the recent decision to allocate £9 million to the Standards Fund next year and more thereafter for local authorities to create new opportunities for adults, based on plans and targets for widening participation and promoting quality in adult learning. We welcome too the establishment of Local Lifelong Learning Strategic Partnerships and the guidance that local authority plans should be fully articulated with those of other local providers, particularly further education institutions and integrated with TEC-led local Workforce Development Plans.

4.7 The recent decision to extend loan facilities to some part-time students in higher education is also a welcome first step to achieving equity of support and opportunity for part-time learners. At the same time, we share the concern that has been expressed in many quarters about the evidence suggesting a down-turn in demand for full-time higher education from mature students. This apparent reduction in demand comes at a time of otherwise welcome renewed expansion, and is especially disturbing if it suggests the beginning of a trend.

4.8 The current down-turn in demand from mature students may have resulted from the changes in the overall financial support arrangements for students and the introduction of fees for higher education. Some of it may have resulted from a misunderstanding of the particular application of the new arrangements to mature students and this can be corrected by a sustained effort aimed at clarifying their position.

4.9 The decline may equally have arisen from other causes. There is the unwillingness of many mature students, especially those from poorer backgrounds or with family and home commitments, to take on the daunting prospect of substantial additional debt, albeit they will not be required to repay loans for higher education until they reach the designated income threshold. Other factors may also have been at work, including demographic shifts, altered labour market conditions, the growing range of openings for part-time and distance learning and changed opportunities for those with degree qualifications.

4.10 In our view, there is an urgent need for the whole issue of demand from mature students for full time higher education and for public policy in respect of it to be informed by rigorous and sophisticated research. This could include an exploration of different possible ways of providing support for mature learners such as through special bursaries, an older learners' loan scheme and funding to give access to advice and guidance.

Beyond 'barriers'

4.11 The general barriers to increasing participation in adult learning so far identified include people's preference to make other use of their free time, pressures on time at home and work, location, finance, domestic and caring responsibilities, lack of information and absence of opportunity, a belief amongst many that learning has little to offer them and unhappy memories of school. But, this simple catalogue of a range of familiar barriers only takes us so far.

4.12 Stimulating demand and developing learning cultures will require a multi-level, multi-stranded approach. Policy ought to be defined and implemented with the varying needs of different segments of the potential market for learning in mind. Some changes can be achieved in the short-term, but the sort of cultural shift we commend will require prolonged and sustained effort, as we have already argued. In this, individuals, organisations and the state will all need to be willing to raise the amount of time, money and other resources devoted to learning throughout life. Such a long-term change will require that learning for pleasure be valued as highly by policy-makers as it is by participants.

4.13 Access to new forms and sources of learning, including communications and information technology, should be universal and should increasingly become a routine part of the organisational, cultural and physical environment of our everyday lives. Even the architecture and design of public spaces should come to include access to lifelong learning opportunities for all, including the availability of information and communications technology.

4.14 Links need to be made out into the community and to peoples places of work and leisure through sensitive, trusted and sustained outreach. This means stimulating demand by building upon these activities which already interest and involve people or which express their own priorities and aspirations. It also entails targetted activity to raise expectations amongst children and adults, through schools, voluntary and community groups, work and trade unions.

4.15 While it is true that 'learning pays' for individuals, some kinds of learning clearly pays more than others, both materially and subjectively. Making use of the Campaign for Learning's typology of different potential learning environments draws attention to those which are either less obvious or even unexpected and yet in which access to learning could be facilitated and engagement increased. Finally, we know far too little about how exactly peer support as incentive and constraint works amongst adults in relation to learning. As we later recommend, recent successes with family learning indicate that the notion of 'peers' for adults may well be cross-generational.

4.16 Our approach also focuses upon changing patterns of consumption(19), by getting people to switch to learning, by 'infiltrating', incorporating, inserting or weaving opportunities for learning into other aspects of people's lives and by securing for them learning which is both appropriate and well-timed. In our working papers, we advocate a model aimed at promoting a variety of policy interventions and instruments based upon the core aim of building learning increasingly into people's everyday lives - in terms of motivation, institutions, space and time. The model proposes that demand generally can be widened and increased by taking action in three key interrelated spheres:

• Incentives, rewards and constraints;
• Contexts and Environments:
• Peer Support

KR3 Government should work closely with representatives of each major provider and funder of lifelong learning, the UfI, employers, trade unions, voluntary organisations, community groups and marketing experts to secure the development of a range of specially targeted initiatives designed to stimulate and widen demand for learning. Initiatives to increase demand should:

• combine approaches based on outreach, the use of incentives, changing contexts and environments, and working through peer support;
• be directed at creating a much wider range of 'learning-friendly' environments  be tailored to the particular needs of different groups of learners and potential learners; and
• be clearly articulated with each other.

SR4 Local authorities should be required to consult widely about their lifelong learning development plans and publish them.

SR5 Government should identify funds and seek tenders for a detailed study of the changing demand, and potential demand, for learning from mature students, their various needs for support and alternative ways of providing for this.

SR6 All providers should develop and implement policies, with appropriate targets, aimed at changing the shape of student and institutional support to:

• systematically increase access to high quality, impartial and up-to-date information, advice and guidance; and
• give increased learning support to mature and part-time learners in further and higher education and to students in the early stages of programmes in order to boost retention and achievement.

SR7 Learning-friendly environments should be promoted by means of:

• competitions and guidelines to encourage learning-friendly design for workplaces, public spaces, shopping centres and other buildings from architects and others; and
• developing planning regulations with incentives and requirements to include the creation of learning centres and access to communication and information technology.

SR8 More potential consumers of learning should be reached by considering the use of:

• giving additional credits on Individual Learning Accounts through supermarket 'loyalty cards' and on the basis of train or bus miles; and
• instituting weekly lottery prizes to cover the fee and maintenance costs of learning programmes.

SR9 Learning opportunities should be more effectively woven in with paid work through:

• implementing fiscal incentives for employers providing (access to) basic skills training and establishing workplace learning centres; or supporting Individual Learning Accounts;
• promoting the wider use of workplace learning agreements;
• considering the introduction of new ways for employers to account for and/or their investment in learning, as part of the development of corporate governances;
• using measures such as Investors in People as a standard in respect of rules for tendering and the award of contracts;
• strengthening the role of the Employment Service in the promotion of learning; and
• establishing of special teams to work closely with small and tiny enterprises to design support schemes of learning for them.

SR10 Steps could be taken to modify the media and broadcasting environment by:

• including a requirement to promote learning as a condition of subsidies for major providers of TV and radio;
• considering legislation to make it a duty for all terrestrial broadcasting channels to educate as well as entertain and inform; and
• working with the BBC and independent broadcasters to explore further the potential of dedicated digital channels to support learning.