Comments from Third Age Employment Network (TAEN)
The Third Age Employment Network is a leading national network of over 200 member organisations committed to better opportunities for older people to work, earn and learn. TAEN champions the contribution that age diversity in employment makes to business success and a healthy society. TAEN is a member of the LSC Equality and Diversity Advisory Group. Adult learning is central to the age diversity issue because it provides a main route through which individual adults aged 45+ can access suitable opportunities to work, and which enable them to utilise and develop their skills, abilities and experience. For this reason TAEN believes strongly that there should be a radical uplift in the profile, resources, quality and role of adult learning for people in mid life so that provision is on a level with what is available for adults under 25s. Seeking training and education to extend work opportunities should become as normal in mid-life as it is for school and college leavers.
We agree that resources should be concentrated on those who wish to gain qualifications relevant to identified skills shortage and on those who have low levels of existing qualifications (para 28)
We also support the proposal that adult guidance (IAG) should be a key method for the identification of target learners (para46). This also means that JobCentre Plus Personal Advisers should be one of the main means for identifying target learners as they see more of adults with low levels of skills than any one else.
We also support all effort to simplify funding regimes so that it is clear to adults what is available at what level of subsidy or free in what circumstances. The experience of our Members working with great numbers of mid life and older adults is that confusion about what is available at what price is a great barrier to participation.
Cut off age of 30
We strongly oppose the option that funding should be limited to adults under 30 (para28). If this is advanced as an option we see it as contrary to the Education Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. We also believe it is contrary to the forthcoming Government legislation on age discrimination in employment and training.
The proposal runs counter to many other aspects of Learning and Skills Council and DfES policies. We see it as being no different from a proposal to restrict funding to men or white people, which we assume the LSC would oppose.
It runs counter to widening participation because the data shows that those in mid or later career should be a target rather than excluded:
Mid 20s 70%
Mid 30s 50%
Mid 40s 40%
Mid 50s 30%
(Source LSC presentation on Success for All)
There is a strong case for rebalancing the £8bn budget for post-16 learning
towards adults over 30 rather than accentuating the existing heavy weighting
on under 30.
It runs counter to the proposal to concentrate on adults with lower skills levels: Levels of qualifications amongst adults drop sharply with age. 27% of over 50s have no formal qualifications compared to 12% of 25-49 year olds (QPID 1999). National targets will not be met without a substantial uplift in qualifications of those in their 40s, 50s and beyond. So a cut off of age 30 does not appear logical.
It runs counter to the Government’s commitments on age diversity, to the policies of the Green Paper on Pensions and Work and to the LSC’s own Equality and Diversity Strategy.
We look forward to hearing from you that you are not taking forward the option of a cut off age of 30.
Third Age Employment Network (TAEN)
May 13th 2003
