The effectiveness of learner-involvement strategies in adult community learning and work-based learning - November 2014
This report is the third in a series of three reports requested by the Minister for Education and Skills in his annual remit a letter to Estyn. It is intended to inform the further development of the Welsh Government’s learner-involvement strategy guidance for post-16 learning providers and disseminate good practice case studies across the post-16 network.The report focuses on how well adult community learning (ACL) and work-based learning (WBL) providers implement learner-involvement strategies.As part of this survey inspectors have collected and evaluated a range of information. We visited 12 ACL partnerships and providers and eight WBL providers (see Appendix 1). The purpose of these visits was to follow up on the progress these education and training providers have made since the introduction of the Welsh Government’s learner-involvement strategy in 2010. We undertook this work between August and December 2013. We also conducted an online survey in September 2013.The report also provides an overall evaluation of how well providers in the post-16 sector help learners to shape their curriculum and take more control of what they learn.
Recommendations
Adult community learning providers should:
- put formal infrastructures in place to help learners to organise their own classes and activities in their communities;
- increase the use of learner-involvement strategies and activities to improve the quality of teaching and assessment;
- offer programmes to learners that help them to develop their citizenship and leadership skills;
- put formal systems in place to record and recognise the range of personal and social outcomes achieved by learners;
- make robust use of the Learner Voice Wales survey at partnership level in quality improvement planning; and
- make sure that all learners know about what has happened as a result of providing their views and opinions or what they have changed as a result of taking part in surveys or questionnaires.
Work-based learning providers should:
- monitor more closely the impact of taking part in learner-involvement activities for individual learners;
- improve access to learner-involvement activities for learners in geographically dispersed locations; and
- make sure that all learners know the outcomes of the Learner Voice Wales survey at provider level.
The Welsh Government should:
- review its learner-involvement strategy to place more emphasis on the development of citizenship skills and build the capacity of learners to take leadership roles and organise their own learning.