Good afternoon everyone.

I want to start today with a quote- not from a trade unionist, student unionist, philosopher or commentator but a minister- Phil Hope, an ex-government skills minister who spoke to you at your “New Futures New Funding” conference just a couple of years ago.

He said then: “We want to ensure that learning for people of all ages continues. We want to ensure that learning for people in the family context continues. We want to stand by our commitments to working with individuals who through no fault of their own did not get the best or most suitable education first time round. And I quote: We remain firmly committed to safeguarding learning ‘for its own sake’ for adults of all ages over 19”

Well you can’t doubt his commitment but you can certainly doubt the achievement.

Others today will doubtless have rehearsed the figures, but a million missing adults is hardly ensuring that learning for adults in the contexts he described is protected.

NUS is often accused of an obsession with HE Undergraduate funding, but we have clear and strong views on Further Education and Adult Learners too.

We start from a position that tries to understand and evaluate what education is for- and what our members tell us, of all ages and backgrounds, is that education and learning is about much more than the economy. That doesn’t mean that we support “learning for own sake”- a phrase that implies a personal selfishness or a hobbyish, eccentric obsession- but we do believe, see and know that education has benefits that go way beyond the economic competitiveness of UK PLC.

And we also believe that a demand led funding system where what ministers only ever mean by “demand” is what employers need and want rather than any demands that learners might have is a system that is doomed to failure.

The Government talks about outcomes, skills and employees like they’re Factory widgets in a training video, able to be whittled and shaped into qualification based boxes. But we all know that there’s no educational outcomes - good, bad or indifferent - without learners’ time, their attention, their motivation, their application and their active and deliberate choice of education.

It makes them co-producers of their education, and so learning is an active and engaged process where teaching and learning in necessarily diverse and personalised.

Yet we know that despite the high opportunity costs for adult learners, formal education represents a whole breath of civically valuable things- an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding, to test and extend talents and to change career path.

Of course we must consider Leitch, and subsequent government policy initiatives have seen a deepening and broadening of the economically-focussed and qualification-measured ethos.

And NUS has no objection to a Government wanting to boost the country economically. But when the only fundable purpose of education is economic performance, we’re in deep trouble as a society- both in principle, and we believe in practice.

Here’s the diagnosis. This policy thrust rightly identifies low skills as the primary reason for the UK’s low position on OECD league tables. The trouble is it wrongly assumes that a mix of bribery and PR can shift the culture.

It’s clear to us that employers in the UK see skills in raw economic terms: they ask, “what is the minimum level of skills I need from an employee for them to do their job effectively”? Where employers do support training it is nearly always with a specific destination and outcome in mind. And so long as that’s the direction, whatever the mechanism or quango, this attitude, supported by an “economic need” approach to education; will never adequately meet the needs of learners. For adults, education has never been about a simple transaction, adults who return to education do so for a whole variety of reasons and specific care progression is rarely one of those.

NUS believes the future of adult education must focus on societal and personal development and we must shed the obsession with demonstrable economic outcomes being the driving force of policy. Because unless we start to move in a different direction, all we end up doing is dismantling rather than reinforcing social mobility. Those who can afford it - both in opportunity costs and financial costs- might be valuable, but those who can’t will only ever be economically useful.

So we want to see a change in the Government’s approach to adult learners and FE in general, and this requires a multi faceted approach.

Autonomous, high quality colleges, equipped and supported to deliver education tailored to local needs.

Funding for adults that goes beyond the mechanistic.

Coordinated national funding and support for specialist provision that ensures learners have access to the widest possible curriculum offer.

Harnessing technology and innovations in teaching methodology to deliver programmes flexibly, effectively and matched to the needs of every individual learner.

Information and guidance of the highest quality, delivered by independent experts, not just course options and information but clear guidance on likely opportunities etc. so learners can make an informed decision about the value of the education in abstract and concrete terms.

A statutory right to paid time off for training and development of a similar nature to holiday leave. Employers must have complementary right to control timing, but we want employees to have the right to make some of the decisions about content. Of course, employers could decide to support specific paths through funding courses where these had a business interest in doing so.

But it’s not just the Government who we have a challenge for.

In Universities, students of higher education control large budgets allowing them to set up effective systems to support students and voice their concerns, questions and complaints about their education.

Their advice services are strong; their committee attendance exemplary; they make loud and clear every day the hopes, aspirations and fears of students about their education. Many of you will have been involved in them. But that isn’t true for most of the FE sector. By our reckoning the representation, advocacy and complaints regime for the “clients” in FE, in comparison to schools, Universities, the NHS, the railways- just about every other public or quasi public service- it’s just about the worst in the UK.

And that needs to change.

Not only does NUS believe that student representation improves education, we also believe that this process is educational in itself. In part, this is because asking ‘why did you say that’ helps us understand students in 2007, and partly because being asked gives students a sense of ownership and builds commitment from students to the notion of ‘co-production’ of successful learning outcomes.

We all know that FE as a concept and brand perceives itself as offering a uniquely adult, developmental environment for socially, economically and culturally diverse learners. College websites talk about that adult environment, prospectuses, leaflets and open evenings. But is it true? Our members are attracted to and motivated by the adult brand, but the reality is that FE’s “Adult Environment” is partly mythological. They tell us that it is equally and as often conservative, paternalistic and run in the interests not of learners but of colleges as providers, who market but do not deliver that expected adult environment.

And by that I don’t mean the décor, the smoking shelters or the college parties. I mean the very perception of learners from the Governing Body right down to the tutor- co-producers with something valuable to say, or not. Able to initiate or resist change in their education- or not. A decent and well-funded student representation system- or not.

There’s now a little known law that all colleges have to draw up and monitor a Learner Engagement Strategy. The good news is that our research demonstrates that with board and senior management buy in, some will from enthusiastic staff given time to do it, and a modest level of funding - as well as clear support for a development plan - student representation can survive and flourish.

And so if you want to join me in making this happen, let me now set out how. Let me set out clearly how you can go back to your colleges and make a strong learner voice a reality at your college.

First - go back and advocate for full and comprehensive student course rep systems. Ask what arrangements are in place for students to comment not just on lockers and canteens, but on teaching and learning itself. Ensure you’re helping to find reps from across the college and across the demographics- and fund some training and support for those student reps too.

Next, get people talking about budgets. All colleges are responsible for allocating a budget to the students’ union. We want to see colleges adequately fund their students’ union as a representative body. Some colleges do. Most colleges don’t.

We want to see professional staff support to enable unions to take on the challenge of co-ordinating representation across the college. And we want students to feel they can be challenging, controversial or difficult, like good citizens are supposed to be.

Then, check that students are consulted when changes or policies are developed. Security policies, behaviour policies, bullying and harassment, discipline, teaching and learning: they’re all better when students are involved in their design.

Building the development of student organisations into the ethos of a college used to be fundamental, but now it’s mandatory. I’ve said it before- students’ views don’t just appear out of thin air. They need time, space, encouragement and organisation to debate and produce. And that means two building a base of representation around course reps, students’ unions, student councils and student leaders.

And it’s that culture - rooted in the educational character and mission of a college - that I challenge you as agents of change to help create. Sadly I still hear the view promoted that Student Evaluations are worthless - that we can learn nothing from their views and that we should all do our best to resist them. These are the kinds of views that were propagated by Vice Chancellors in Universities in the fifties. I’d like to hope, however, that they’re not the views of the majority in this room.

I know that the cynics may see a relentless focus on learner advocacy as just another initiative, another box to tick, another meeting to hold and a passage in the self-assessment document.

But I'm here to tell you that it can, it will and it must mean more than this. A focus on learner voice means giving learners more power. It means that student representation must be supported and funded. It means students being encouraged to express interesting and controversial views. It means that complaints need to be something to learn from, not close down on. And it means that - occasionally - the pressure from learners needs to be uncomfortable.

And when this happens it must be the sign of a healthy college culture.

And that’s what I mean when I say that it’s time for FE to become truly adult. It’s time for an end to the excuses of student apathy or “it’s different in FE”. Adults in FE - the very people we need to engage most in education - don’t need a student association that organises a disco once a term- they need their voice encouraged, funded and supported, both collectively and individually.

And it’s on that issue that I feel most strongly. The demography of FE - second chance learners, vocational students, the very people for whom education matters more than anyone else - this matters to us, and it matters to me.

Education - and being involved in it, creating it, co-producing it - changed me. We talk so much in this sector about the way in which FE transforms lives, but that isn’t a given. It only transforms lives like mine for the best when it is an open, listening, adult community - creating challenges, listening to learners, and building a culture of self improvement for itself, its staff and its students.

Which is why focusing on learner voice is more than just a self- assessment tool. It strikes at the very heart of what we do and why we’re here. To transform peoples lives - and transform society.

Thank you.

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