Adult learning and qualifications in Britain

an article by Andrew Jenkins (UCL Institute of Education, London, UK) published in Journal of Education and Work Volume 30 Issue 4 (2017)

Abstract

The importance of people gaining new, and high-level, qualifications in adulthood has been much emphasised in policy rhetoric. It is widely assumed that adults should engage in learning throughout their working life in order to adapt to changing conditions in the labour market and to ensure that national economies remain competitive in a global skills race.

Educational researchers have frequently been rather sceptical about the numbers who actually achieve such upgrading in practice and have been critical of the feasibility and relevance of policies which attempt to address this issue.

This paper provides empirical evidence on how many people acquire qualifications in adulthood, and whether they upgrade to higher levels of qualification than previously held, using British data from the 1958 National Child Development Study.

Estimates are constructed of the volume of qualification acquisition and upgrading for this cohort through to age 50. On the basis of this new evidence, it is argued that previous analyses by educational researchers may have been overly pessimistic about the extent to which individuals engage in accredited learning over the adult lifecourse.

The implications for research and policy are discussed.

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