The Learning Age and After

A new Labour government was elected in May 1997 and wasted no time in signalling its enthusiasm for the education of adults. Secretary of State for Education and Employment David Blunkett gave his first speech in office at the launch of Adult Learners' Week 1997 and announced the creation of a National Advisory Group for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning (NAGCELL) to advise him on a new strategy for adult learning. Its first report, "Learning for the Twenty-First Century," published in November 1997, proved significant. It called for the development of "a new learning culture, a culture of lifelong learning for all" to meet the challenges of economic, social and technological change, and argued for a simplified, coherent framework for the promotion of lifelong learning, giving increased emphasis to the home, the community and the workplace as key places of learning. In 1998 the government published a Green Paper called "The Learning Age: A renaissance for a new Britain." Blunkett's preface to the paper warmly endorsed the spirit of NAGCELL's report in terms which reflected much of the vision for adult learning NIACE had been developing over the previous decade. In the fourth article in a series marking 90 years of NIACE support for adult learning, the author reflects on the Labour years and looks forward to the challenges facing the Institute in the second decade of the twenty-first century.