International Adult Learners Week
in Europe

Network of Learning festivals

International Adult Learners Forum

4 - 6 October 2004
Knuston Hall
Northamptonshire, UK

(This report was prepared by Sue Duffin who also facilitated the Forum on behalf of IntALWinE in cooperation with Val Saunders.)

The Forum was the first of three learner-centred activities of IntALWinE. Within the network, the design of the programme of the Forum was discussed, and the network partners nominated an adult learner from their country. It was agreed that the adult learner should be able to communicate in English as the event would be held in the UK and 'interpreters' costs would not be part of the funding. The adult learner should also provide of leadership skills and confidence to take part in the International Forum. A few places were available for network partners to attend.

NIACE, the UK partner of IntALWinE, organised the Forum as a a residential event at one of the Adult Residential Colleges in the UK. Knuston Hall in Northamptonshire was chosen as it has the easiest access to London airports. The event was planned for Monday 4 - Wednesday 6 October 2004 with an overnight stay in London to collect the group together on 3 October 2004. The UK participants joined the group in London on the Monday.

The international learners were given a choice of educational visits in and around London on the morning of 4 October.

Aims and Outcomes of the Forum

The aims of the International Adult Learners Forum were to:

  • share experiences of being consulted as a learner in one's own country;
  • improve committee skills, confidence building, presentation skills, listening skills, and working as a member of a team or group;
  • come up with recommendations of involving learners in consultation;
  • draw up a Ten Point 'charter' for professionals and policy makers when involving learners at an international level;
  • explore possibilities for the future locally, nationally and internationally; and
  • act as a multiplier and set up a national Adult Learners Forum in the participating countries.

The Participants

Organisers


Facilitators (Sue Duffin & Val Saunders)
Network Partners (NIACE, Slovenian Institute for Adult Education, Norwegian Association for Adult Education, and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning)

Adult Learners from

Bulgaria, Cyprus, England, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Wales.

Four of the participating learners were from the UK, and they all had had previous experience of involvement in a forum at national or local level.

The final group consisted of 21 participants with 15 learners. All participants had been sent a questionnaire prior to the Forum asking for information about themselves and their learning. Participants responded to:

  1. Personal data;
  2. Are you involved in any learning, at the moment?
  3. Are you (or have you been) involved in any surveys or research where people ask your opinion?
  4. Is this your first visit to the UK? How confident are you about travelling in the UK?
  5. Training - identify training needs: listening skills, committee skills (chairing a meeting, taking minutes etc.), presentation skills; How to become more confident; Working as part of a team or group;
  6. Special Needs - diet, difficulty with mobility, large print/coloured paper, hearing loop; and
  7. A short profile.
As a result of the questionnaire, the following picture could be derived:

1. Personal data

Gender:

11 female and 4 male

Age:

Age range 20-29 30-39 40-49 50+
No. of learners 2 5 4 4

2. Are you involved in any learning, at the moment?

The participants brought a range of experience of learning:

Basic Skills 2
Computing/ICT 3
Languages 3
Business Skills 1
Economics 1
Fashion design 1
Creative writing 1
Music 1
Higher Education 3

3. Are you (or have you been) involved in any surveys or research where people ask your opinion?

  • Five participants had some experience of involvement in consultation within education.
  • Three participants had experience of Adult Learners Forums at a local and national level.
  • One participant was involved in a Forum only at a local level.
  • Three participants had been involved in writing/delivering questionnaires or other mechanisms of consultation.
  • Three participants had been 'consulted' or part of a survey of some description.

4. Is this your first visit to the UK? How confident are you about travelling in the UK?

Half the participants had traveled to the UK before and only one felt 'not confident'. This participant was met at the airport on arrival.

5. Training - identify training needs

Participants were asked to identify what training needs they would like included. The responses suggested that all skills would be welcomed.

Listening Skills 10
Committee Skills 13
Presentation Skills 11
How to become more confident 12
Working as part of a team 12

6. Special Needs - diet; mobility; large print/coloured paper; hearing loop

Three participants were dyslexic. One required large print/colored paper. One participant had a sensory impairment.

7. A Short Profile

The participants represented a huge range of background. One woman ran her own business, two participants worked with people with learning difficulties and disabilities. One man used sport and athletics as a medium. Two participants were involved alongside professionals in contributing to Learning Festivals and in other European projects. Two were teachers of children or adults. On the whole the group was made up of confident and well experienced individuals.

The Programme

The programme was planned to ensure time was allocated to sharing experience, time to discuss 'consultation and learner involvement' and short introductory sessions of training. Confident participants were included in the delivery alongside two experienced facilitators. Participants were encouraged to chair the discussion groups and to make the final presentations. The programme finished with a session about how to take the work forward by UIL and by the group itself.

Day One - Introductions and Welcome

Getting to know each other; Programme and Domestics; Outcomes of the Seminar; Ground rules; Recording learning.

Day Two - Consultation

Methods of consultation - from participants and expanded; advantages and disadvantages of different methods from a learner perspective; a Learners Forum - tips on how to set up.

How learners can get more involved - as enthusiasts; as promoters of learning; in local research; as a learner representative on local/regional committees; as a member of a Learners Forum; as a speaker at a conference or seminar; as a delegate of a conference or seminar. How can more learners be encouraged to get involved?
What support or training do learners need?

Local visit to a typical Northamptonshire town hosted by the Mayor.

Ten Tips for involving learners -discussion around final Ten Points as a start of a policy document.

'What is a Learners Forum?' - question and answer session.

Day Three - Presentations of 'Ten Tips'

Where do we go from here? What do we need to do to take this work forward? How can the group keep in touch? What can participants take back?
What do they need to consider for their own situation? Evaluation.

Evaluation

Participants were asked to comment on a number of questions.

How well have you achieved what you hoped to learn from this forum?
Most participants felt that the event had been useful in a number of ways: building confidence; chance to use and improve English, information to take back and use in their own situation.

How well has the forum met your personal needs and expectations?
All participants stated that their needs and expectations had been met and in many cases exceeded. New ideas, vision for the work and motivation were all quoted as benefits.

What have you liked most about the forum?
Meeting new people and sharing experiences were sources of satisfaction. The organisation of the event and the interactive nature of the activities were mentioned by several participants as was the relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Working in small groups was appreciated.

What have you liked least about the forum?
'Time' seems to have caused some concern. Too short a time, pressure of time and a tightly packed schedule were all mentioned but several participants stated there was nothing they didn't like.

If you had been running the forum, what would you have done differently?
A few suggestions here included clarifying the meaning of a 'Forum' and a cultural visit.

Conclusions

  • It is already very complicated to bring people from a number of European countries together when they are professionals. When they are learners, the travelling creates greater anxiety and full support mechanisms are essential.
  • The idea of bringing people together to London the day before was crucial not only for the travel arrangements but also so that participants could become familiar with being in England and having to cope with the language.
  • Participation was fairly representative from the European countries (almost all IntALWinE partner countries had been able to identify a learner for the Forum). The participants brought with them a range of expertise in learning, in involvement with consultation, in language skills and in creativity. Each individual contributed their strengths and learned from each other.
  • The representation of male and female participants reflected the balance in adult learning generally, both in staffing and participation. There was a good spread of age with all decades from 20+ to 50+ represented.
  • The size of the group was perfect for the interactive nature of the event and a larger group (of around 30 people) would have changed the atmosphere and the methodology of the three days.
  • The residential nature of the event was critical in building good relations within the group and focusing on the task in hand.
  • Each of the sessions could have been extended to last longer as the two and a half days did not give enough time to tackle the individual sessions in depth. The interest was there and each topic could have been explored in more depth.
  • The aims and outcomes of the programme were achieved although more work would have been needed to pull together the final version of the Ten Tips for Professionals and Policy Makers.
  • For a number of participants learner involvement was a new area of work and they had come with an open mind to learn. Many felt that the event had provided ideas and clarity of vision to take back and explore in their own countries and contexts. They all appreciated the opportunity to share experience, ideas and friendship as a good foundation for any future work. For a minority the content of the event was too much and they would have appreciated more time and less pressure.

Recommendations

  1. That a small group of participants be identified who will contribute to the continuation of the work.
  2. That a draft version of the Ten Tips 'poster' for professionals and policy makers would be prepared as a basis for final consultation in May 2005 (for the International Study Tour), possibly in cooperation with the identified group of adult learners.
  3. That the foreseen publication of learners’ voices would be ready and available (at least in one language: English) by May 2005. Consideration should be given to including an element of how learners get involved in consultation and participate in promotion, planning and decision-making. The poster of Ten Tips could eventually be included in the publication as a folded insert. (NB: While these elements were not included in the above publication, they finally became part of the concluding IntALWinE publication.)
  4. That the nature of the International Study Tour in May 2005 would be planned carefully and well in advance. Consideration should be given to whether participants from October 2004 be invited and/or whether an invitation be extended to other countries.
  5. That any further meetings or 'Study Tours' that involve learners would have an allocated person to take sole responsibility for the planning and operation of the travelling arrangements and subsequent support.
  6. That an email discussion group for learners would be set up to continue this work and not to lose the momentum that has been started.
  7. That UIL, in partnership with the learners and IntALWinE partners, would seek funding from the European Commission to continue with the International Adult Learners Forum beyond the coming publication and the next meeting, and to support work undertaken in each country (such as setting up a national forum). See: Planning Workshop for a European Network