Keynote Speech: Challenges, Approaches, Outcomes
Viv Berkeley, Development Officer on the Health and Disability Equality Team of the National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE).
Viv's work takes into account adult learners with learning difficulties and the issues surrounding them. She works across the teams at NIACE and is currently working with the Literacy, Language and Numeracy Team on the Skills for Life Quality Improvement Programme and with Mick Murray, Development Officer in the Community Team, on the Foundation Learning Tier.
Viv argued that learning should increase people's social capacity and confidence, it should promote positive mental health, and it should support people to up-skill, re-skill or simply try a new skill. People with learning difficulties may well need help from others in their lives if the learning they undertake with teachers is to leak into and ripple out to wider parts of their lives. And that is where parents, carers, personal assistants and support workers play a vital role. They are the people who can consolidate the skills and knowledge acquired in the "formal" learning setting.
Viv wants learning to belong to everyone. She wants learning to transcend the classroom and infiltrate all areas of life, and for each learner to be actively stimulated and supported to develop their skills by a variety of people in their life. She spoke of the challenges when trying to engage parents and carers in the learning process and gave examples of work in England in relation to Skills for Life, in particular, two approaches NIACE have used - the 2004 Quality Improvement Agency project on introducing the Pre Entry Level Curriculum Framework to carers in the social care and health field and the 2006 the Learning for Living Pathfinder Project.
The full text of Viv's talk, which contains references to a number of useful and interesting texts.
Viv's presentation PowerPoint
Viv has also kindly given permission for us to post this thought provoking paper:
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Really?
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