Adjournment Debate

ADULT LEARNERS' WEEK

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (15:54): I am very pleased to be able to report to the house on the winners of the Adult Learners' Week awards for 2012. I was pleased to represent the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and many other things the other night at a wonderful function to celebrate adult learners. The Adult Learning Program of the Year, an award sponsored by Adam Internet, was won by the Glandore Community Centre in Marion. The winner of the Adult Learning Community of the Year, sponsored by Adult Learning Australia, was the Taperoo Community Centre/UnitingCare Wesley Port Adelaide. The winner of the award of Adult Educator of the Year for a volunteer, sponsored by Credit Unions SA, was Tanya Moralee from Bedford industries.

The joint winners of the Adult Educator of the Year (Paid) award, jointly sponsored by the WEA and South Australian Council of Adult Literacy were Susan Lang from the Glandore Community House and Simon Cho from Bedford Training. The member for Mawson, I am sure, was very proud to learn that the Adult Learner of the Year, sponsored by TAFE SA, was Sue Steer from the Hackham West Community Centre.

Mr Bignell: I have sent a congratulatory letter already.

Ms THOMPSON: The member for Mawson has already moved to congratulate Ms Steer. I was also pleased that for the first time ever the Adult Learner of the Year was recognised at this year's training awards functions. Sue Steer was present with her husband and able to be acknowledged by the wider training community.

Adult community education plays a vital role in our community. At the moment some transformations are occurring in that area and in this process it is really important that we not forget the value of adult community education, but add value to it by allowing centres, if they choose, to engage with the wonderful Skills for All program. There is no doubt that Skills for All offers opportunities to South Australians to learn and develop workforce skills in a way that has never been possible before.

The adult community education sector has an important role in this, in that it is usually in that sector that people who have not experienced success in learning can take their initial steps to successful learning outcomes. Often they do not realise that they are learning. They think they are just doing something, or maybe learning to do something, but not really appreciating at first the extent to which they are building their literacy and numeracy skills, building their communication skills, building their confidence, learning more about the world around them, getting support from other members of the community centre and generally enhancing their lives.

In my study trip that I undertook to London, Manchester and Glasgow in January (I hope members note that this was not a great big holiday, going to those places at that time of year) I was very interested to hear that a lot of the debate in Britain about the role of adult and community education is similar to that in Australia. There is a lot of concern that the value of education in the adult sector is not being recognised.

While the state is prepared to fund and support general education in school, up to year 12, and in university, for the people who do not access either completion of their schooling or university, the direction of funding is generally towards vocational education. This has become very much the case in England, yet there are strong advocates there talking about the equity in enabling all people, particularly those who did not obtain a successful year 12 qualification, to have access to education, not just skills, at later periods in their lives.

There has been quite a bit of research in Britain linking the value of learning to health outcomes. While I was there I heard a number of stories about successful programs. One program that moved me was undertaken by the City Literary Institute, generally known as City Lit, the largest adult training organisation in the UK. They ran a program for homeless people. Interestingly it was not about getting them housed first and then teaching them things. It was about teaching them things and in the process they will learn things that will help them with housing, health management and many other things.

I spoke extensively with Nick Moore, the deputy principal of City Lit, and also with Dr Peter Lavender, the senior research and policy analyst for the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. Nick told me that one of the most moving stories in his long career in education was of a young homeless man who had engaged in one of their basic courses about organising your life for homeless people. Part of the package was that he got a canvas shoulder bag with City Lit written on it. He said that now he was not a homeless person as his first classification, he was a student, and this gave him great pride and joy.

The integration of Skills for All into the adult community education sector takes a lot of thinking through. At The presentation of the Adult Learners' Week awards, I expressed my thanks to both officers of DFEEST and the community sector for trying to work through the difficult process of bringing together a large organisation that is used to looking at outcomes, deliverables and training that are evaluated and accredited and community organisations that are used to responding to the needs of the community as expressed in conversations, by events that occur in the community and responding quickly to opportunities to enable the community to learn further.

This is quite a complicated process and, while I think it is extremely valuable that Skills for All is now delivering accredited learning through community centres, it is even more important that the value of adult and community education in and of itself not be forgotten. I congratulate all those who were nominated for the Adult Learners' Week awards. I especially congratulate those who won and I thank everybody who volunteers or works to keep the adult and community education sector a strong and viable part of our community.