ACE inclusiveness

The adult and community education sector plays a significant role in the social inclusion agenda, says Kaye Bowman. Governments tell us social inclusion is important. The best future for Australia will rest on its ability to develop the capacities of all our people and to increase social and economic participation. That education can promote inclusion is well accepted. How we achieve this is less well agreed. We need some guiding principles. Two overarching principles come to mind. One, governments should focus on the outcomes to be achieved. Two, the people we are seeking to include should be enabled to pursue the outcomes in their own way. There appears to be a chain of learning outcomes to be achieved. The baseline or threshold outcome is that the person is (re-)engaged with learning. From there, the bundle of learning outcomes include: raised confidence and self esteem as a learner; raised foundation literacy skills; improved communication and connections with others; undertaking directed learning for work purposes and improved careers; greater involvement in community activities and services; and improved health and wellbeing outcomes, that are as a result of achieving the previous outcomes. Those inside government need to back programs that deliver these outcomes, but avoid specifying the processes for achieving them. There is no one right way for people to enter onto and ride the learning and skills development escalator. Non-engagement with current mainstream education programs does not equal apathy: it equals alienation from the approaches on offer. We need programs that enable the excluded to find their own way to the desired learning outcomes. Trying to force-fit those at the margins of our economy and society directly into the mainstream education and training system will not work in most instances. New models are required that take learning to the people. The good news is there are many innovative learning models in existence. The Catalyst Clemente program, run by Mission Australia and ACU National, is making university education in the humanities available to disadvantaged people through a partnership between a university, community organisations and a range of external supporters. VET organisations are providing education and personal support services in partnership with other human services agencies. The adult and community education (ACE) sector has a vast range of individual, client-focused models and programs that are re-engaging adults with learning. The sector is reaching disengaged adults and building their learning confidence, skills and qualifications, and employment and citizenship outcomes. The Men’s Community Sheds movement is a new form of education that is creating spaces and opportunities for men and boys to learn hands on, shoulder to shoulder, in a wide range of vocational skills and to produce useful products for their communities. The unfortunate news is that these programs are still not well recognised by government, as evidenced by the paltry levels of funding they receive. A 2003 study conservatively estimated the net private economic benefit of Australia’s ACE sector to be $2.5 billion per year. The estimate was limited to measuring income and projected income arising from the number of transfers of ACE participants into vocational education and training or higher education or directly to work. The study also estimated the net community economic benefit of ACE providers to exceed $800 million. Price WaterhouseCoopers has developed a methodology for estimating the full economic benefit of the adult and community education sector in New Zealand. The model takes into account the full array of outcomes that ACE achieves, including the economic benefits of higher incomes, savings in welfare benefits payments, increased taxes, lower cost of crime, lower cost of domestic violence, added value through volunteering and lower health costs. The model puts the economic benefit of New Zealand’s ACE sector at between $4.8 billion and $6.3 billion annually – a return on investment of $54 to $72 for each dollar spent. It would be interesting to learn what the results would be for Australia. The federal government’s social inclusion and human capital reform agendas have a common focus on reaching the educationally disadvantaged and providing them with learning opportunities that lead to improved job outcomes and social participation. There is recognition that at this interface between the two agendas, ACE is well placed to play a greater role. The third Ministerial Declaration on Adult and Community Education (2008) expresses new national goals and strategies for the ACE sector within the framework of COAG. The declaration states unequivocally that ACE can contribute to COAG’s productivity agenda for skills and workforce development, and identifies the sector as a key player in the government’s social inclusion agenda. When will these statements be backed by greater government investment levels, and the full potential of the adult and community education realised in Australia? Dr Kaye Bowman specialises in education and training, regional development and the links between the two.