Adult learning across the island

Having worked extensively with adult educators and organisations across multiple jurisdictions, I've always been adept at code-switching between policy, funding and structural/institutional contexts. During my time with City & Guilds that included working with different products, whilst (gently) chiding internal colleagues based in England about some of their unconscious Anglocentrisms ("No, we don't have Ofsted here!").

Image: Jeff Schmaltz - NASA Earth Observatory

Within the island of Ireland, a century of partition has diverged structures, discourses, assumptions and even terminology (the term 'FE college' has different connotations on each side of the border). Whilst the north's FE and skills policies and structures are largely an austerity-weathered version of those transplanted from England during the 1990s and 2000s, the south has seen a frenetic development of Further Education and Training (FET) and Apprenticeships over the last couple of decades. Much as AONTAS and others frequently draw attention to the financial and other barriers that still exist for many adult learners, the system is relatively awash with money, initiatives go leór and a sense of momentum.

There's still plenty to gripe about - ESOL has yet to fully capture policymakers' attention (although a few things are starting to happen behind the scenes), and the ten-year, whole-of-government Adult Literacy for Life strategy is still a work-in-progress. But it's a paradise compared with the cash-strapped and policy-sclerotic north, which has had no functioning Executive for five of the last eight years, and only one new Programme for Government since 2012 (which barely mentions skills, let alone adult and community education).

And in Derry this is compounded by the effects of the systemic and systematic regional imbalances that have characterised the northern state throughout its existence. What was Ireland's fourth largest city has got used to being treated by Belfast-based policymakers as part of the non-Belfast 'sub-region' (when it's not being deliberately run down by officials); meanwhile the expansion of Letterkenny's Atlantic Technological University campus is close to pushing Donegal's largest town ahead of Derry's third-level student count.

Despite there being no dedicated adult education service in the north (akin to those run through the ETBs in the 26 counties, or by local authorities in Great Britain), there are plenty of examples of resourceful and innovative practice across a patchwork of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations. For a long time these have tended to sit beneath the radar as far as policymakers were concerned, although a major report (PDF) earlier this year shone a light on the sector and set out how its impact might be understood and measured more effectively.

For this report to be commissioned by the Department for the Economy, and entrusted to members of the Alliance for Lifelong Learning was undoubtedly a huge step forward, although it remains to be seen how far its fresh lens on the sector might survive the inevitable intra/inter-departmental tussles that seem to stymie almost any radical or original thinking at Stormont.

Those of us who advocate unashamedly for an end to Ireland's partition are bound to point to the inefficiency and wastefulness of maintaining two separate education systems on one island, although (as with Health and most other public services) we shouldn't underestimate the challenges involved in bringing these together under a new constitutional arrangement. Amidst all of the calls for citizens' assemblies and reunification roadmaps, those of us who understand and cherish the transformative impact of adult education on people's lives (and not just as a 'skills' pipeline) need to be at the table.