ABSTRACT
Greater attention than at present needs to be given to patterns of adult participation in learning opportunities. This is so for several reasons, most importantly because the determinants of participation are so widely misun- derstood. Much research in this area considers only the views of current and recent participants, and so biases any policy recommendations. This approach tends to obscure the scale of lifelong non-participation in formal learning episodes, to ignore the often very valid reasons for non-participation, and to downplay the valuable self-directed learning evident among seeming ‘non-learners’ (Gorard and Rees 2002). In addition, there is often a confu- sion between changes over time for successive age cohorts and for individuals. Most policies are directed at improving measurements of learning such as participation among working-age adults that have no impact at all on the life of the adults themselves. For example, most of the growth towards UK targets for lifelong learning is explained by the annual addition of qualified 16-year-olds to the working-age population, and the subtraction of less qualified retirees. Growth towards the target is, thus, achieved without any increase at all in education or training for adults (Gorard et al. 2002). In fact, formal participation in later life is reducing over time and becoming more inequitable in terms of sex, social class and employment (Gorard et al. 1999a). The results of the new study outlined in this chapter begin to explain why the multiplication of learning opportuni- ties and the removal of barriers to participation are not being effective, in isolation, in attracting those on a non-participation ‘trajectory’.
