Yorkshire & the Humber Regional Minister Caroline Flint met a group of adult learners ranging from a teenager to an octogenarian when she launched the Regional Learners Panel in Doncaster. The Panel is the first in the country and is being piloted in the region to complement the work of the National Learner Panel set up last year.
Caroline Flint, who took part in an open forum discussion with learners and guests at the College, said: "The launch of this Panel is an exciting and important step in the whole education, learning and skills mix, and I am delighted to attend and to give it my support as Regional Minister.
"The skills agenda is a high priority in Yorkshire and the Humber. One of my priorities is the ten per cent of 16 to 17 years olds not in education, employment or training in the UK live in the Yorkshire and Humber area. We need to urgently address the skills barriers that are preventing these young people from looking for work, or, once in work, preventing them staying and progressing within a job. "This means ensuring that all young people have basic numeracy and literacy skills. "Panel members have an important role to play in influencing their peers, and helping to shape learning opportunities across colleges and the range of work-based and adult community learning resources."
Jawad Ahmed, 19, Chair of the Regional Learners Panel, from Bradford, said: "I joined the Panel hoping that I could have an even more active role and participation in the processes which shape our daily student lives, and by meeting other panel members and members of different organisations. I have realised how much power and influence a person, a young student, can have."John Lawton, of NIACE, National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education, which has organised the event said: "NIACE welcomes this first-ever Regional Learners Panel. The members will be advocates and champions for learners across the region, giving a vital perspective to providers on how and what type of learning is on offer and helping to shape the learning opportunities of the future."
Eighty-nine-year-old Dulcie Eccleston may have left school 75 years ago, but now she is advising Government ministers on how to shape future learning opportunities.Mrs Eccleston, of Market Street, Winterton, is a member of the Regional Learners Panel - the first to be set up in the country. It is a pilot scheme to complement the National Learners Panel, created last year.
She said: "What we need is something for the senior citizens because we are not the sort of people rushing round in our cars."We need facilities where we are based - in our towns and villages. It has to be accessible."Among those the Minister met where Jawad Ahmed, the Chair of the Panel and a student at Bradford College. Jawad, who is 19 years old, is studying Biology, Chemistry, English Literature, Citizenship and Critical Thinking at AS level; Gillian Mann, from Hull, a retired lawyer and school governor, who is currently studying German; and Dave Thompson, 24, of Hull, studying an Advanced Apprenticeship in Business Administration, who struggled at school with dyslexia. Other panel members are from Scunthorpe, North and North Lincs, North Yorkshire, Leeds, Hebden Bridge, Barnsley and Sheffield.
During the course of the launch event each panel members had the opportunity to ask the Minister questions regarding learning within the Yorkshire & Humber region. Dave explained to the Minister that in the Humber Sub Region he had set up a Humber-Sub Regional Learner Panel to get a broader view from Apprentices undertaking the Apprenticeship route, this would give more Apprentices the opportunity to feed information into the Regional Learner Panel. One of the points that was brought up at the first Sub-Region meeting was why do employers, young people and parents have a negative view of Apprenticeships and what could be done to improve these preconceptions? The Minister & Margaret Coleman (LSC), explained that over the coming months the government where intending to spend over £1million on advertising Apprenticeships detailing what the pluses where for Young People and Employers. The Minister also reiterated that the government and the PM Gordon Brown where very focused on increasing the profile of Apprenticeships. Other questions fired at the Minister included questions on lack of Information, Advice and Guidance from key government organisations including Job Centre Plus and Connexions. The lack of funding for Adult Learners, increasing accessibility for learners in rural areas and how to get better provision for learners where all other areas that the Minister covered.
