Differing visions of a Learning Society Vol 2: Research findings Volume 2 (ESRC Learning Society series)

This is the second of two volumes which examine differing visions of a learning society. This volume presents six further "overview" chapters, each one by a project team which presents its aims, methods, findings and policy implications. It explores such themes as the skills of British workers, the meaning of the learning society for adults with learning difficulties, using social capital to explain patterns of lifelong learning, and the social determinants of non-participation. Taken together, the conclusions which emanate from this programme of research suggest very different ways of thinking about a learning society and very different policies from those introduced by the government. The two volumes demonstrate from empirical evidence the continuing weaknesses of current policies and make proposals, based on evidence, for more effective structural changes. DIFFERING VISIONS OF A LEARNING SOCIETY......Page 2 Contents......Page 4 Notes on contributors......Page 5 Introduction......Page 12 The Learning Society Programme......Page 15 ‘Learn at work, if you can’......Page 16 Participation and non-participation......Page 19 An over-reliance on human capital theory......Page 22 The shifting of responsibility to individuals......Page 25 There’s precious little society in The Learning Society......Page 27 The centrality of learning for a learning society......Page 30 New inequalities......Page 32 Lessons from elsewhere in Europe......Page 34 So what is to be done?......Page 37 Coda......Page 50 Background......Page 60 Objectives......Page 61 Methods......Page 62 The policy context......Page 72 Findings from key informant interviews: mapping Scottish lifelong learning services......Page 79 Findings from ethnographic case studies......Page 85 Identity or biography: issues of structure and agency for people with learning difficulties in a learning society......Page 89 Conclusions......Page 92 Background......Page 106 Methods......Page 108 Results......Page 110 Explaining the patterns......Page 117 Recommendations and research priorities......Page 122 3. Learning culture, learning age, learning society: turning aspirations into reality?......Page 130 Credit-based learning......Page 132 Patterns of participation and progression in the London Open College Network......Page 133 Participation and progression in the National Child Development Study......Page 136 Changing the learning culture in organisations......Page 141 Lessons for the development of the Learning Society......Page 146 Aims and origins......Page 154 Methodology......Page 156 Findings......Page 163 Economic change and the Learning Society......Page 182 History, place and biography: participation in lifelong learning......Page 184 Patterns of lifelong learning trajectories......Page 186 Changes over time in learning trajectories......Page 187 The determinants of learning trajectories......Page 189 Learning through the life course......Page 193 Learner identities......Page 194 Concluding comments......Page 196 Appendix 1: The study methodology......Page 198 Acknowledgements......Page 200 Context......Page 204 Developing an integrated empirical concept of skill......Page 207 Skill changes in Britain......Page 217 Where do skill rises and ‘new skills’ come from?......Page 221 Are skills rewarded in the labour market?......Page 226 Are skills becoming more polarised?......Page 229 Conclusions......Page 232 Is lifelong learning the big idea which will deliver economic prosperity and social justice? Or will it prove to be another transient phenomenon? Picture lifelong learning, the editor suggests, as making its way through three overlapping stages - romance, evidence and implementation. Lifelong learning is tentatively entering the second stage, where research evidence is beginning to challenge the vacuous rhetoric of the stage of romance. The findings from the Economic and Social Research Council's programme of research into the Learning Society are presented in two volumes, of which this is the second. The editor, Frank Coffield, begins by surveying as a whole the findings of the 14 projects, and summarises them in a number of recurrent themes and policy recommendations. The chapters which follow present the aims, methods, findings and policy implications of six projects. Volume 1 contains similar chapters on the other projects. Taken together, the conclusions suggest very different ways of thinking about a Learning Society and very different policies from those in operation at present. The two volumes demonstrate from empirical evidence the continuing weaknesses of current policies and make proposals, based on hard evidence, for more effective structural changes. This second volume presents findings from a national survey of the skills of British workers, and it discusses both the meaning of the Learning Society for adults with learning difficulties, and the use of social capital to explain patterns of lifelong learning. Other chapters present for the first time five different'trajectories'of lifelong learning, explore the determinants of participation and non-participation in learning, and examine innovation in Higher Education. Finally, two differing visions of a Learning Society are contrasted. The first extrapolates existing policies and practices into the next 5-10 years and finds them seriously wanting. The second option calls for more democracy rather than technocracy and develops a kaleidoscopic array of possible futures which find their source in the empirical work of the 14 projects. These volumes are essential reading for politicians, policy makers, practitioners, employers, and all teachers with responsibility for lifelong learning. This second volume discusses both the meaning of the Learning Society for adults with learning difficulties, and use of social capital to explain patterns of lifelong learning. It presents five different 'trajectories' of lifelong learning, explores determinants of participation and non-participation in learning, and innovation in Higher Education. This first volume explores the ways lifelong learning can contribute to the development of knowledge and skills for employment, and other areas of adult life. It addresses the challenges for researchers to study issues that are central and directly relevant to the political and policy debate, and to take into account the reality of people's lives. This volume provides an examination of what is meant by the learning society and how it can contribute to the development of knowledge and skills for employment and other areas of adult life