Dr Fiona Aldridge will be presenting a workshop at EPALE UK's online event 'In Conversation with the Adult Learning Sector' on 10 November 2020.

In March 2020, the UK Government implemented a lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of people worked from home or were furloughed, and parents home-schooled their children. Many adult learning providers suspended in-person teaching and, where possible, learning was delivered online instead.

At Learning and Work Institute, we were keen to harness our latest Adult Participation in Learning Survey to help us understand the impact of the pandemic on adult learning.

Would economic uncertainty encourage more adults to upskill, or would it limit opportunities for workforce development?

Would extra time at home be used to learn new things, or would it be too difficult to balance learning with wider caring and home responsibilities?

Would the move to online learning open up opportunities, or close them down?

Learning through lockdown

Encouragingly, this year’s survey showed that 43% of adults – an estimated 22 million people across the UK – embraced the opportunity to learn during lockdown. And most of this learning took place online, with 9 in 10 learners doing some or all of their learning in this way.

We were also encouraged to see 91% of online leaners say that they are likely to continue learn in this way in the future (64% very likely) – especially with England about to go into a second lockdown and with other parts of the UK facing ongoing restrictions.

While around one-third of adults said that their lockdown learning was related to their work, others chose to learn for their own personal development (14%) or to pursue a personal interest or a hobby (12%). One in ten said that reduced time and work pressures during lockdown enabled them to take up learning, with a similar proportion saying that they engaged in learning in order to fill their time.

But lockdown introduced significant challenges too. One in five found that their previously planned learning had to be postponed or cancelled. Others struggled with access to technology (8%) and to balance lockdown learning with work pressures (11%) and with childcare/home-schooling (11%). One in ten learners struggled to maintain motivation.

Of particular concern, however, is that the survey highlighted stark inequalities in who engaged with learning during lockdown with younger adults, full-time workers, those in higher socio-economic grades and with more education all more likely to learn. We already knew the pandemic was having an unequal impact on the labour market with workers in lower skilled roles and with fewer qualifications more likely to have been furloughed or to have lost their jobs. Alarmingly, this survey also shows us that those who face the greatest need to upskill and retrain to find work in the post-COVID-19 economy are least likely to be doing so.

The benefits and challenges of online learning

And while who participates is important, its just as critical that we also seek to understand more about people’s experience of learning.

Online learners told us that they particularly liked being able to learn in their own time and at their own pace, and that they valued the flexibility, ease of access and convenience that it offers. But there were challenges too – with one in eight struggling with poor internet connection and in finding the time to learn.

During the next stage of the UK EAAL programme, we will be going back to some of our survey respondents to find out more about their experience of online learning. We are particularly interested in finding out more about their motivations and the challenges and benefits of online learning.

We also want to explore how we best harness this experience of ‘lockdown learning’ – particularly among adults who have not previously engaged in learning – in order to support them to become lifelong learners, and indeed to improve online provision and learner support more broadly. I look forward to sharing some of this with you later in the year.

About the author

Fiona Aldridge is director for policy and research at Learning and Work Institute an independent policy, research and development organisation dedicated to lifelong learning, full employment and inclusion in the UK. Fiona is responsible for leading L&W’s programme of research and development, ensuring that its work influences policy and practice by providing a credible and influential voice on learning, skills and employment. Fiona has more than 20 years’ experience in the adult learning and skills sector, during which time she has managed L&W’s series of surveys on adult participation in learning.

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