Adult Learners' Week
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History
Adult Learners' Week is an international festival of adult learning. It is a UNESCO initiative that was first celebrated in the United States in the late ’80s, where there was a move to create a broad celebration of adult learning by the American Association for the Advancement of Education (AAAE).
In 1990, governments met in Jomtien for the Education for All World conference[1]. The aim of this conference was to set goals for universal access to and completion of primary education and to reduce the adult illiteracy rate to one half its 1990 level by 2000.
Adult Learners' Week in the UK
In the United Kingdom, the National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education first coordinated Adult Learners’ Week in 1992.
Today Adult Learners’ Week is the UK’s largest festival of learning, and the overall purpose of the initiative is to raise demand for learning and skills. It highlights the benefits of learning of all kinds, learning for work, informal learning as well as learning for personal development. 14 to 20 May 2011 marked the twentieth Adult Learners’ Week in England[2].
Adult Learners' Week in the UK is now known as the Festival of Learning[3]
The initiative is supported by the European Social Fund, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Next Step, BBC, Open University and Pearson PLC.
Adult Learners' Week in Australia
Adult Learners' Week is supported in Australia by the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training and coordinated by Adult Learning Australia. Adult Learners' Week runs from 1–8 September and incorporates International Literacy Day, which is celebrated annually on September 8.
‘[T]he origins of Adult Learners’ Week in Australia can be directly traced to the UK experience’[4].
In 1995, Adult Learning Australia (then the Australian Association of Adult Education) received a grant to conduct a national pilot of Adult Learners’ Week. Government funding was then made available, and has continued for the national coordination of Adult Learners’ Week to this day.
The twentieth year of Adult Learners Week was celebrated in Australia in 1995.
For 23 years, Adult Learners’ Week has been supported by successive Australian governments for a variety of reasons but largely because of its unique ability to attract adults with some or all of the following characteristics:
- Adults who are not engaged in formal or non-formal learning activities either in the workplace or in the community.
- Adults who have had negative past experiences of formal education.
- Adults with low levels of literacy and numeracy.
- Adults who have an ambivalence about returning to learning.
- Adults who lack of an understanding of the learning options available to them.[5]
External links
- Adult Learners’ Week official website Australia
- About Adult Learners’ Week, Australian Government website
- Festival of Learning official website UK
References
- ^ "Outcomes on education". United Nations.
- ^ . Journal of Adult and Continuing Education. 2018 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1477971418796650.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help); Unknown parameter|Title=ignored (|title=suggested) (help) - ^ "Festival of Learning".
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|url=(help); Text "url:https://www.festivaloflearning.org.uk/" ignored (help) - ^ Morris (2002). "Adult Learners' Week: The Australian experience". Adult Education and Development (58): 201–208.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ "National evaluation of Adult Learners Week". NCVER. 2003.