Forum for Adult Learning Northern Ireland

Annual Conference and AGM
2023-10-20 10:00 - 13:00 (Europe/London)
The conference will revive FALNI’s report on Towards a Culture of Lifelong Learning and examine the importance of Place for focusing learning development. We will welcome Stephen Evans of the Learning & Work Institute as keynote speaker and also Ian Getgood from DfE. Other speakers will be announced at a later date.
The morning will also hold FALNI’s first AGM since becoming fully constituted.

Supporting the Learner Voice
2023-03-24 10:00 - 13:00 | NICVA, 61 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast, BT15 2GB, United Kingdom
This seminar seeks to identify ways in which the voice of the adult learner in NI can be supported and strengthened to shape and undertake advocacy to influence policy and practice, across all sectors.
We will hear from our colleagues at AONTAS about the National Further Education and Training (FET) Learner Forum and from our Scottish colleagues at Scotland’s Learning Partnership about its Learners’ Forum.
We want the event to be a conversation with learners and not about learners, and so we encourage our regular attendees to bring a learner with them. The event will be structured to foreground learner voices and ensure these shape recommendations for future action.
Ideas from the seminar will be taken forward by FALNI so see how best NI can emulate the success of its neighbours in this area.
This seminar is run as part of the 2023 Belfast Festival of Learning and we wish to thank the Festival for its financial support.

Designing a Culture of Lifelong Learning
2021-10-22 10:00 - 12:30
On Friday 22nd October we will hold our next webinar and hope that you will come along and lend your support and energy to further our thinking on creating a culture of lifelong learning for NI.
Forum members have been busy in four working groups preparing ideas to share with you around key building blocks – vision, engagement, collaboration and resourcing. Come and hear what they are proposing and interact with their ideas and add your own.
After the webinar we will prepare a report with which we will then engage with other stakeholders within and beyond the adult learning field.
We will be joined at the event by two great supporters of the Forum – Niamh O’Reilly (CEO of AONTAS) and Stephen Evans (CEO of the Learning & Work Institute), who will share their thoughts on our theme too.
Come along and help us show how the Forum can contribute to advancing adult and lifelong learning in NI.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/designing-a-culture-of-lifelong-learning-tickets-168458286269

Building the Future of Adult/Lifelong Learning in NI
2021-06-08 10:00 - 12:00
The next Impact Forum webinar will continue to stimulate thinking around the Skills Strategy recommendation on building a culture of lifelong learning in NI.
We are securing a variety of speakers from different perspectives to help our visioning and exploration of what such a culture could be, how we could work together to achieve and sustain it and how we could engage more people to access and enjoy learning.
Secured speakers to date:
Roger Arneill – Skills Strategy Development Lead at Dept for the Economy – who will give an overview of the new Skills Strategy
John Holford – Professor of Adult Education at the University of Nottingham and member of the Centenary Commission on Adult Education – who will speak to the Commission’s report (downloadable from our Reports/Resources page)
Seamus McAleavey – CEO of NICVA – who will speak to the NICVA Manifesto for Change
10 May Update
Brian Doran, CEO of Southern Regional College, will speak on the NI College of the Future (also downloadable from this site)
To book your place go to – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/building-the-future-of-adultlifelong-learning-in-northern-ireland-tickets-153034276641

NIC ICTU Union Learn Conference
2021-03-31 14:00 - 16:00
Union Learning Conference 2021
The Annual NIC ICTU Union Learning Conference will take place on Wednesday, 31st March 2021 via Zoom from 2.00pm to 4.00 pm.
This year’s theme, Future Skills and Recovery will utilise speakers to look at:

Union Learning: Lockdown and Beyond
ICTU No Going Back campaign
Levelling up skills after coronavirus: The role of trade unions and social partnership in workforce training
The Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland
The Open University – Distance learning in an increasingly online world

This years virtual Union Learning Conference, Future Skills & Recovery will take place on 31st March, 2-4pmFor further info and to book your place 👇https://t.co/sFt5eXiCzP pic.twitter.com/vraxMd7d4V
— NIC ICTU (@NIC_ICTU) March 25, 2021

For those new to Union Learning or interested in the concept, the day will be a useful introduction and an opportunity to identify sources of support.
Registration is on Eventbrite, please use this link to book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ictu-union-learning-conference-tickets-143717636319
A joining link and final agenda will follow closer to the date.
For further information, please contact: julie.gorman@ictuni.org

Creating a Culture of LIfelong Learning
2021-03-19 10:00 - 12:00
One of the key recommendations of the OECD report which is informing the creation of the next Skills Strategy for NI, was the need to build a culture of lifelong learning.
The Forum wants to start (and maintain) a conversation on this exciting proposal which we believe should be central to our next Programme for Government, as well as contributing to the Skills Strategy.
Join us on 19th March to begin our exploration of the contribution of adult learning in this development with keynotes from:
Ellen Boeren (University of Glasgow) – Professor of Adult Education. Ellen co-edited the Fourth Global Report on Adult Learning and Education with UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning and worked as a consultant for the European Commission. She also led the Scottish team within the EUR 2.5 million Horizon 2020 project ENLIVEN ‘Encouraging Lifelong Learning for an Inclusive and Vibrant Europe’.
Fiona Aldridge (Learning & Work Institute) – Director for Policy & Research. Fiona has more than 20 years’ experience in the adult learning and skills sector, and currently works across a range of policy areas including apprenticeships and T Levels, with a particular focus on building the capacity of local areas, providers and employers to lead and respond to changes in post-16 education and skills.
As always the event will be interactive and we want to encourage all participants to share views and ideas and commit to working with us to ensure that adult learning stakeholders from across the full range of sectors have a chance to shape and drive such an initiative.
Our plan is to follow up on this initial conversation with a conference on the autumn.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creating-a-culture-of-lifelong-learning-tickets-142924367631

Network of Adult Learning Across Borders
2021-03-05 11:00 - 13:00
As part of the AONTAS-led events for the 2021 AONTAS Adult Learners’ Festival, this policy event will bring the members of the Network for Adult Learning Across Borders (NALAB), Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, together to discuss our shared vision for educational equality and explore the variety of approaches taken by each in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Date: Friday, 5th March 2021 (Closing event of the AONTAS Adult Learner’s Festival 2021)
Time: 11.00am – 1pm
Location: Online Via Zoom

The agenda will include:

Adult learners from across the Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Niamh O’Reilly, CEO, AONTAS
Stephen Evans, Chief Executive, Learning and Work Institute, UK
Fiona Boucher, Chief Executive, Scotland’s Learning Partnership
Trevor Neilands, Chairperson, Northern Ireland Impact Forum
David Hagendyk, Director, Learning and Work Institute, Wales
Tara Farrell, AONTAS Chairperson and CEO, Longford Women’s Link (LWL)

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/network-for-adult-learning-across-borders-policy-day-event-tickets-139615715363

Adult and Community Education in Northern Ireland: An AONTAS Collaboration
2021-03-03 10:30 - 12:00
The event will provide a space for practitioners to share their experiences, outline barriers faced in the adult learning sector, build new relationships and learn from peers.
FALNI and AONTAS are building a collaborative relationship based around our common concerns that cut across all of the island of Ireland and exploring how each organisation can support the other, building on respective strengths. We’re also aware that AONTAS is not that well known in NI and currently has few northern members .
Attendees will have the opportunity to find out more about AONTAS (the National Adult Learning Organisation), identify supports and opportunities the organisation could make available to them and outline their needs as part of potential future cooperation. A focus group will be held as part of this event to inform an upcoming report led by Colin Neilands on behalf of AONTAS on the current situation facing adult learning in Northern Ireland. This report aims to capture the advocacy needs of groups involved and the wider NI sector.
Membership of AONTAS is open to individuals as well as organisations.
To register click Adult and Community Education in Northern Ireland: An AONTAS Collaboration | Aontas and scroll to the bottom.

Launch of Learn Well, Live Well Report
2021-02-24 14:00 - 15:00
The Learn Well, Live Well: adult learning and health and wellbeing report has been produced over the past few months as part of the UK programme for the European Agenda on Adult Learning (managed by the Learning and Work Institute). It has been compiled and edited by the NI Impact Forum on Adult Learning and Belfast Learning City.
The report has six thematic chapters written by academics and practitioners and is illustrated by 16 case studies from across Northern Ireland and Ireland. Collectively they show the impact that adult learning has on health and wellbeing, both directly and indirectly. As the world struggles with the Covid-19 pandemic and looks to life thereafter, the evidence of the report points to the importance of support and investment in learning lifelong and lifewide.
Contributors to the event include: Raúl Valdés-Cotera (UNESCO Inst. of Lifelong Learning), Stephen Evans (Learning and Work Institute), Kelly Gilliland (Belfast City Council) and Bryan Nelson (Belfast Health & Social Care Trust).
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launch-of-learn-well-live-well-adult-learning-and-health-and-wellbeing-tickets-139704125801

A wellbeing society - the role of adult learning in post-pandemic Wales
2021-02-22 09:00 - 13:00
Keynote and Q&A with Kirsty Williams MS, Minister for Education, Welsh Government
There is a growing consensus that across the UK a serious commitment to the rejuvenation and development of adult education and lifelong learning is needed.
Recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and the challenges presented by our exit from the European Union place more importance on the role of lifelong learning to equip people and communities with the resilience and skills to bounce back and move forward.
Join us for a discussion on the role of adult learning in Wales – developing a right to lifelong learning, moving Wales closer to a wellbeing society and a cohesive strategy for adult learning.
100 years of learning and work
The British Institute of Adult Education was founded in 1921 following the 1919 report on Adult Education. Over the next century, various name changes and mergers led to the Learning and Work Institute today.
2021 therefore marks an important anniversary for us and for adult education more generally.
Contributions from:
Sue Pember, Policy Director for HOLEX England.
Graciela Sbertoli, Secretary General of The European Basic Skills Network.
Colin McGregor – Director, ACE Aotearoa, New Zealand.

More speakers and breakout sessions to be confirmed.
Further details will be circulated in due course, but to reserve your place you can register HERE.

A Higher Skills Ambition for NI: Skills for growth and social inclusion
2021-01-27 14:00 - 16:00
A higher skills ambition for Northern Ireland. Skills for growth and social inclusion.

Research Launch – Wednesday 27th January 2021. 2.00pm – 4.00pm.
Economic growth and social inclusion are intrinsically linked to education and skills, so a strong learning culture is essential to all modern economies. The findings of this independent research however shows how economic growth has tended to be weaker in N. Ireland over the past decade than the UK as a whole and the Republic of Ireland. The report concludes that now is the time to set a higher ambition around skills for growth and social inclusion, aligned to concerted action to deliver better outcomes. Learning needs to become the golden thread running through all public policy within N. Ireland.
This report, from the Learning and Work Institute, commissioned by OCN Northern Ireland, is both timely and robust. Success will however pivot on Government and social partners moving out of current silos to build on proven best practice, alongside a shared focus on the delivery of better individual and community outcomes in line with our Programme for Government.
On the afternoon of Wednesday 27th January 2021, we will share the detail of this research and the key findings. An expert panel of practitioners will then consider practical steps to success and early wins. Speakers will include policy makers, including relevant government Ministers and decision makers, practitioners and social partners from across civic society.
This event will be hosted online, and the full research report will be available after the event. We would welcome your attendance and contribution to what promises to be an important event in helping shape a higher skills ambition for growth and social inclusion within Northern Ireland. Please click here to register.
