In 2019 the Lord Mayors of Belfast, Cork, Dublin and the Mayors of Limerick and Derry City and Strabane Region signed a formal agreement to commit each city to work together and provide mutual support to help deliver on the vision of a learning city for all citizens. All five cities are part of the...
OPEN COLLEGE NETWORK (OCN) is NI’s leading vocational and technical awarding body, that advances education by developing and awarding qualifications for adults and young people throughout Northern Ireland (NI). Working in collaboration with NI’s six Further Education Colleges, schools, community and voluntary organisations, and other training providers, OCN has awarded over 27,000 vocational and technical...
FALNI will be making a response to this critical consultation and hopes that as many of you will make a response as well, particularly to highlight issues around lifelong/adult learning. Below are a number of points that we shall be making and it would be great if you could incorporate some of these into your...
On 30th June AONTAS launched its inaugural CEN Census report, which in addition to providing the first ever comprehensive research into community education provision in Ireland, also focused on the impact Covid has had on providers and learners. The research aimed to uncover who engages in community education, what courses are provided, how it is...
FALNI was delighted to learn that Adrianne Brown, a regular attendee at Forum events, is the newly elected Chair of North Down and Ards U3A. When interviewed by the County Down Spectator Adrianne said: One of the first things I will be doing with the Forum for Adult Learning Northern Ireland is to ensure lifelong...
Today the Dept for the Economy held a short consultation webinar on the new Skills Strategy. There were presentations from Graeme Wilkinson (DfE) on the strategy itself and Deirdre Wood (DfC) on Labour Market Partnerships, followed by a short Q&A session. The presentations can be found below, but two short quotes from each presenter are...
Looking forward to this event next week – https://www.aontas.com/events/cen-census-2020-launch FALNI would love to carry out similar research into the provision and needs of VCSE sector learning providers in Northern Ireland. Would anyone like to fund us?
Great reflection from Niamh O’Reilly, CEO of AONTAS, on learning post-pandemic and the importance of giving blended learning its due place, rather than just rushing back to old practices.
FALNI has been working closely with Learning & Work since 2014 when we became involved in the UK’s EAAL programme (European Agenda on Adult Learning), but many people in Northern Ireland involved in adult learning will also remember its previous incarnation as NIACE (National Institute for Adult Continuing Education). Alan Tuckett, for many years the...
The much-awaited Skills Strategy Consultation is now open and will remain open until 19th August. The report can be downloaded from our Reports/Resources page, but you will also want to go to https://consultations.nidirect.gov.uk/dfe-skills-and-business-development-group/skills-strategy-for-northern-ireland/ to access the link for responses. The commitment to building a culture of lifelong learning is still there, and it is one...
