Adult learning is alive in many forms. Whether it is helping to improve literacy and numeracy or to prepare people for returning to work, it is clear that, at its best, adult learning brings considerable value to learners and to the wider community. Individuals, their families and the nation as a whole benefit from enhanced social and technical…

Adult community learning in Wales covers a number of curriculum areas, delivered by a range of providers, including the voluntary sector. Classes reflect Welsh Assembly Government policy priorities, including improving levels of literacy and skills, decreasing economic inactivity and building community regeneration. A variety of community-based…

In April 2007 "new" Ofsted ("old" Ofsted merged with the Adult Learning Inspectorate) became responsible for inspection of a very wide range of provision, including all post-compulsory education and training for adults. Significant changes in inspection processes had already been introduced for local authority adult and…

Networking has helped local education authority (LEA) providers of adult and community learning (ACL) get to grips with the current inspection regime. David Sherlock, Chief Inspector of the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI), observed, as he launched his third annual report, that their willingness to work together in the face of initially…

Professional development practices implemented in rural school systems have often led nowhere. These practices seem to produce adult learning activities with few results other than participants' mounting frustration and another innovation left by the wayside. To encourage the development of productive professional development, many studies are…

The monograph provides a systematic explication of the underlying standards and principles that have been developed to help adult learners articulate what they know and can do, to clarify their claims to creditable achievement, to help assessors improve the reliability of assessment, and to save assessor time. Ten academic and administrative…

The prospects for managing the tension between accountability and improvement in further and higher education (FHE) were examined through a literature review and a 5-year ethnographic study of a change management project at a higher education college in Wales. Special attention was paid to the following challenges facing FHE: globalization; the…