The name is absent

retained positive memories of individual teachers. These memories, often long stored,
eased their re-entry into education.

12.2.1 Policy conclusion 2

Guidance for young people, e.g. through Connexions, should stress that even if they
choose not to continue directly with their education they should always be conscious
that there are opportunities to return to learning.

12.2.2 Policy conclusion 3

Our findings confirm the well-known importance of non-accredited and local courses
as often the first route for those with low confidence, whether or not they have been
successful in initial education.

12.2.3 Policy conclusion 4

Good teaching matters, though its effect may not show up until much later. Teachers
at all levels need support in sustaining learning cultures within different student peer
groups. Central to this is adequate time for teachers to do the appropriate job,
especially in relation to learners at the foot of the ladder, who require close personal
support.

12.3 Family lives

We describe a number of ways in which adults’ involvement in learning has broadly
beneficial effects on the lives of their families.

Parents are brought to value their own children’s learning more highly, to understand
what their children are engaged in at school and to support them in it. This is
predictable, yet none the less important, and it offers strong support to current policy
commitments on family learning.

As learners themselves, adults act as role models for their children. Reciprocally,
children of different ages can help their parents learn, with beneficial effects on
relationships. But the effects go further. Families are highly diverse bundles of
relationships, and often multigenerational. Learning helps grandparents stay in touch
with younger generations, and to play an active part in family life.

The ability to participate in family life, as more broadly in social and economic life, is
a key component of what Amartya Sen (1999) calls ‘capability’. It may come directly
from the content of the learning, or through the self-confidence that learning brings. It
operates in different directions, for example enabling adult children to communicate
better with their parents. Learning enhances the quality of all kinds of relationships -
horizontal as well as vertical.

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