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PART A: Structure of the research
1. Introduction

This report presents findings from a major piece of primary fieldwork carried out by
the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning. The WBL Centre was set
up by the DfES in 1999 with the following brief:

i) produce and apply methods for measuring and analysing the contribution that
learning makes to wider goals including (but not limited to) social cohesion,
active citizenship, active ageing and improved health;

ii) devise and apply improved methods for measuring the value and contribution of
forms of learning including (but not limited to) community-based adult learning
where the outcomes are not necessarily standard ones such as qualifications;

iii) develop an overall framework to evaluate the impact of the lifelong learning
strategy being put in place to 2002 and beyond to realise the vision set out in the
former DfEE’s Green Paper ‘the Learning Age’ (CM 3790) February 1998,
covering both economic and non-economic outcomes.

The Centre’s first phase involved preliminary scoping work and literature reviews
covering these broad fields (Schuller et al., 2001; Plewis & Preston, 2001), together
with associated analyses of particular aspects (Bynner & Egerton, 2001; Preston &
Hammond, 2002). Readers are referred to these publications for analysis of relevant
literature, which is not included here.

The second phase comprised the fieldwork presented below, and linked work on
large-scale data-sets (Feinstein, 2002 a and b; Blackwell & Bynner, 2002). This report
aims to:

i) present a set of benefit typologies, derived from our extensive fieldwork in
Camden, Nottingham and Tendring. These offer a framework for future work,
within the WBLC and elsewhere;

ii) present evidence from the fieldwork, both thematically and by selecting a small
number of individual case studies to illustrate the interactive effects of learning;

iii) suggest a number of policy implications. We are naturally cautious about
making strong policy recommendations on the basis of this evidence alone, but
there are some clear implications for discussion.

We have used the National Adult Learning Survey definitions of learning, which
include taught and non-taught categories (see Appendix 3). In this report we use a
number of terms - ‘learning’ and ‘education’ primarily, but also ‘study’, ‘classes’ and

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