ADULT LEARNING IN THE NEXT MILLENNIUM: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES FOR POST-SECONDARY EDUCATORS AND GOVERNMENT
By Paul Zakos, President, Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment
The Changing Context Of Adult Education
These are times of far-reaching change in post-secondary education and in the wider society of which it is an important part. The traditional disciplines of teaching and learning are taking on new meaning. Relationships between learners, teachers and the content, format, evaluation and funding of education are in a state of flux. There has been an increase in the number of adult learners with a great deal of work-related experience who want and need to study on a non-residential, part-time basis and receive credit and recognition for their prior learning. In Canada the population is becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse and there has been an increase in the number of women and non-Caucasians seeking entry into post-secondary education. These adults have major life responsibilities such as family, work and community interests which must be balanced against the demands and requirements of educational institutions.
How well are these learners being served by the existing educational system and government funding policies? What improvements need to be made to ensure that their interests and learning needs are more completely addressed as we approach the year 2000? This paper will discuss ways in which educational institutions and governments can work together to make the next century a more hospitable and respectful era for adult learners. It will identify ways in which existing educational and funding arrangements disadvantage adult learners and suggest how this imbalance can be corrected by making educational institutions more directly accountable to individual adult learners instead of government funding sources.
It is important to acknowledge that education does not occur in a vacuum and that it is greatly influenced by the economic, social, cultural and political forces at play in most societies. Author and economist Jeremy Rifkin in his book, "The End of Work - The Decline of the Global Labour Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era", speculates that the powerful effects of technological change and the rapidly developing global economy are combining to re-shape civilization as we know it. One of his most compelling and disturbing arguments is that we are entering a new phase in history characterized by the steady and inevitable decline in jobs. Sophisticated computers, robotics, telecommunications and other technologies are quickly replacing human beings in every sector of business and industry. In the past when new technologies have replaced workers in a given sector new sectors have always emerged to absorb the displaced workers. However today all three of the traditional sectors of the economy - agriculture, manufacturing and service - are experiencing technological displacement forcing millions onto various forms of social assistance. The effects of this phenomenon on families and children are enormous. According to Rifkin the only sector emerging as a potential source of new jobs is the knowledge sector made up of a small elite of scientists, entrepreneurs, technicians, computer programmers, professional educators and consultants. While this sector is growing it is not expected to absorb more than a fraction of the hundreds of millions of people who will be eliminated in the next several decades in the wake of revolutionary advances in the information and communication services.
All nations will have to struggle with the growing numbers of people whose labour is needed less or not at all in an increasingly automated global economy. Re-thinking the very nature of work, according to Rifkin, is likely to be the single most pressing concern facing society in the decades ahead. New ways of defining human worth and social relationships will need to be explored. Free time will come to increasing numbers of citizens according to Rifkin; however, the only choice will be unemployment or leisure. Journalist, Richard Gwyn writing in the October 4, 1998 edition of the Toronto Star adds further credence to Rifkin’s assertion about both the steady and irreversible decline in jobs and the manner in which we define work. Citing a recently released report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) based in Geneva Switzerland, Gwyn had this to say, "According to the ILO, a record one billion workers around the world are either unemployed or under employed. This is one-third of all the workers in all countries."
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers in their book, "The One-to-One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time", also note that we are passing through an era of technological discontinuity of major proportions which has implications for social cohesiveness, alienation and the fragmentation of society. The old paradigm based on mass production, mass media and mass marketing is gradually being replaced by a totally new one based on a one-to-one economic system. They predict that products and services will increasingly be tailored to individual tastes and needs. Technological advances will change forever how we seek information, education and entertainment and pursue happiness. Instead of market share the goal of most businesses will be share of customer - one customer at a time. According to Peppers and Rogers the technologies needed to communicate and track individual customers already exist. Instead of trying to sell a single product or service to as many customers as possible throughout his or her lifetime, success will be predicated on building unique relationships with individual consumers using existing information technology. They further speculate that the most indispensable element of one’s relationship with consumers is dialogue and feedback. What do consumers really want and need? What does this particular consumer need? These are the very questions which successful educational institutions must constantly ask adult learners if they are genuinely interested in building collaborative relationships with them over long periods of time. As competition intensifies, the quality of one’s product or service becomes paramount because consumers will help to define quality based on the establishment of an ongoing collaborative relationship between the product or service provider and consumers of that product or service.
If the observations and assumptions of Rifkin, Peppers, Rogers, et. al. are accurate, and I believe they are, what then are the implications for educational institutions and the provision of services to the thousands of adult learners caught in the vortex of these earth-shattering changes? In every crisis there is opportunity and in this era there are many opportunities for educational institutions and government to take a pro-active role in helping to minimize the negative effects which these unprecedented societal changes are having on adult learners, their families and communities.
Educational institutions will have great difficulty in making the transition from a mass marketing to a one-to-one strategy without the active "encourage-ent" of their funding sources. What is urgently needed is a more equitable allocation of tax dollars to ensure that the legitimate learning needs of adults are given a higher priority by educational institutions, government and business and industry. This does not mean that the work which educational institutions do with younger adults who attend school full-time is not important. However, adult learners need a fairer share of the existing educational resource base delivered in a radically different manner. There is quite often a sense of urgency and desperation accompanying the adult learner’s re-entry into formal learning systems that is not usually found with the traditional age group. Helping them adjust smoothly to this new set of circumstances is critical to ensure that they tackle the challenges of formal study with confidence and enthusiasm. Support services and counselling aimed at helping adults make the necessary adjustments, are legitimate and essential ingredients of the educational process and should not be seen as extraordinary, non-educational costs or activities by either educational institutions or their funding sources.
In addition to the need for a better balance in the allocation of funds for adult learners in higher education there is also the issue of accountability. Government funding policies are pushing post-secondary institutions in Canada to become more efficient and accountable in the way they spend tax dollars and the rationalization of post-secondary systems is well underway in many provinces. The tide has turned against vague, ill-defined goals and outcomes and attention has shifted to more widespread use of technology and measurable outcomes. There is a definite shift away from a highly subsidized public education system to a privately funded one. Government grants are decreasing while tuition fees are increasing. For example, in Ontario, Canada’s most highly populated province, tuition fees in the college system are fifteen hundred dollars per year, an increase of forty percent over the past five years. Conversely government grants per student for full-time study in approved programs have shrunk from five thousand to three thousand dollars, a decrease of forty percent. Governments are gradually easing their way out of their financial obligations for post-secondary education.
Increasingly the money for post-secondary education will come from corporations, benefactors, community fund-raising campaigns, learners themselves and their families. Post-secondary institutions are being pushed to seek private benefactors in order to qualify for matching public funds. Pressure on post-secondary institutions to raise more funds from the private sector will continue to increase as will the competition among these institutions because a more market-driven and market-priced post-secondary system is emerging.
While government operating grants are declining, the push for greater accountability is increasing. In Ontario’s community college system the Ministry of Education and Training and the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology are developing a system-wide accountability frame-work and a process to explore how performance indicators can be used to demonstrate accountability. An Accountability Framework Group and Funding Review Committee were recently established to review funding distribution mechanisms and identify Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure program quality and relevance that may be used to allocate a portion of funding based on performance. Five KPI were identified: post-college outcomes, graduate satisfaction, employer satisfaction, student satisfaction and student retention. For the most part the KPI are focused on the needs of full-time students seeking entry-level employment. The needs of adult learners, many of whom are unable to attend full-time, are not adequately addressed in either the subsidies provided by government for post-secondary education or the accountability framework currently under development - a further indication of the "second class" status of the adult learner. It is anticipated that accountability will be assessed using a telephone interview and/or survey questionnaire format. The results will be tabulated based on percentages of those who were satisfied or dissatisfied etc., with their educational experiences against the Key Performance Indicators. This approach, while useful, does not appear to be based on establishing collaborative relationships and dialogue with in-ividual learners. It will be of little benefit to adult learners who need a more personalized approach. Institutional accountability appears to be designed to appease government funding sources rather than meeting the present and future needs of individual learners.
Emerging Role Of Educational Institutions As Personal And Professional Growth Centres
To meet the challenges posed by the global economy, rapidly changing technologies, an aging and increasingly diverse population, post-secondary institutions must re-define themselves. With increased emphasis on private sector fund-raising, hopefully the marketplace will demand educational services that more accurately reflect demographic trends and constantly changing societal needs. Educational institutions must work harder to become true partners in helping adult learners and their communities to cope with unparalled change. They must provide greater support for education, training, career and personal development to meet the growing challenges posed by the lack of traditional job opportunities for all citizens, especially those most affected by technological advances and globalization.
To achieve these important goals they must create structures and processes that are more flexible and individualized than ever before. They must offer adult learners a wider array of self-paced learning opportunities which allow them to achieve their learning and career goals. Adult learners need and deserve services that are tailored to their unique circumstances and involve them in the decision-making concerning the delivery, content and evaluation of their learning and which encourage and support them in taking greater responsibility for managing their own learning and career plans. The new role of educational institutions in a changing world involves the development of partnerships with stakeholders in the workplace and the community which acknowledge these new realities and which provide more community-based career transition services that focus on helping community members help themselves in learning and training initiatives.
Re-Thinking The Funding Of Adult Education
We urgently need a fresh approach to resource allocation for adult learners which is first and foremost based on their needs and circumstances and not on the needs of educational institutions to maintain the status quo.
Significant changes must be made in the way adult education is funded by government and the way in which adult learning programs are delivered by educational institutions. Adult learners need the types of processes and services from educational institutions that are currently being offered by more and more businesses and service providers in other sectors of society. They need individualized, personalized service which, at its best, provides comprehensive career and personal counselling, assessment of their prior learning and the creation of a career plan as part of a complete package. Failure to acknowledge this fundamental premise prevents any significant innovation on a large scale from occurring in terms of meeting the needs of the growing numbers of deserving citizens. To be effective, funding for adult learners must be structured differently from that of full-time students in post-secondary education. Historically, educational institutions have relied on recruiting high numbers of learners through both their full-time and continuing education departments to generate sufficient income to pay the costs associated with operating the institution. While this is a challenge at the best of times it is especially trying at the present time because of decreasing government subsides, increasing costs and an increasingly older, more diverse (ethnically and culturally) population with needs that are difficult to meet using the "broad brush" approach. According to Peppers and Rogers, mass marketing is passé and educational institutions that ignore this warning do so at their own peril. One-to-one relationships, they argue, are the key to survival and success in almost all business and service organizations.
It is clear that adult learners are at a definite disadvantage in existing educational systems. They need to be able to develop and implement individualized plans which enable them to construct personalized "learning timetables" allowing them to complete program and course requirements without always having formally to enrol in courses which cannot be offered unless they have the requisite number of learners. Adult learners must not only be given more direct control over their education and training dollars, they must be given more of them. They also need and deserve appropriate career and educational dialogue prior to enrolling in any education and training endeavor to ensure the "best fit" for them and that they make the best use of their precious time and often limited resources. Unfortunately the tremendous opportunity for meeting the needs of thousand of adults has not come close to being fully realized because conventional planning in educational systems and existing government funding arrangements have forced the diverse needs of adult learners into rather rigid, restrictive and outdated administrative frameworks.
The obvious inequities in the provision of services to adult learners could be quickly remedied if, for example, they were given access to the three thousand dollars that is annually granted to colleges in Ontario for full-time students. They would then be in a position to negotiate with post-secondary institutions as to how they could best spend that money to meet their learning needs. This would definitely get the attention of college personnel and it would mean that they would have to focus more intensely on the present and future needs of individual learners. Educational institutions would be able to use many of their existing resources but in a much different way than they do for full-time learners. They would need also to re-assess their program and course delivery mechanisms to ensure that they could be delivered in a variety of formats, re-write curricula using a modular, outcomes-based approach to course organization and evaluation, provide prior learning assessment services, utilize staff resources more flexibly and make major changes in the way they view and interact with adult learners and their communities.
Placing more funds in the hands of adult learners and providing them with needed support and advocacy to develop sound learning plans will help make educational institutions more directly accountable to them. It will also help educational institutions and government funders to identify concrete ways in which they can re-shape their structures and processes to more accurately reflect current realities as we enter the next century.
A major characteristic of this new way of doing business involves shifting from a mass-marketing share-of-market mentality, to one based on establishing collaborative, personalized relationships with individual adult learners over longer periods of time, gradually expanding the breadth and depth of the relationship. The concept of lifelong learning, instead of being the latest education and training "buzz words", must take on significant personal meaning for every adult in our society. This will only happen when educational institutions, governments, business and industry provide the resources necessary to encourage and support individuals to develop and implement realistic, custom-made learning plans.
References
Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario/Ministry of Education and Training. Final Report, Implementing Key Performance Indicators for Ontario’s Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology. May 1998. October 23, 1998
Gwyn, Richard. Growing Army of Jobless Proof of Marx’s Prophesy. Toronto Star, October 4, 1998.
Peppers, Don and Rogers, Martha. The One-to-One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time. New York: Doubleday 1996.
Rifkin, Jeremy. The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labour Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. New York: GP. Putman’s Sons. 1995.
