Free to learn

Steve Palmer, Executive Director of the Lancashire LSC, one of 47 local councils, is optimistic about their ability to achieve these aims. ‘Central to our work is the duty to stimulate demand. Learning leads to empowerment. We need to ensure that everyone knows that and can benefit from it. That’s why one of our first tasks is to find out what’s needed – from those who want to learn, from those who’ve never considered themselves as learners and from employers. And we have more horsepower than ever before to provide it.’

For Steve’s area that ‘horsepower’ is £200 million this year. If you want your share of empowerment through learning you have the opportunity to contribute to the current consultation exercise. Contact details for all LSCs are available on www.lsc.gov.uk and they want to hear from you. Because they’re working in partnership with colleges, Careers and Connexions services, Learn Direct and employers they’ll be hearing about unmet demands from them, but there’s no substitute for your contacting them directly and telling them what you want.

If you’re uncertain where to start, or what skills you should be developing, your local Information Advice and Guidance Partnership is the place to visit first. There, adult careers advisers will talk you through the options and set you on the right track. Get details of who and where from your local LSC.

‘We’re here to listen to the voice of the learner, and to encourage those who don’t see themselves as learners,’ says Susan Bickerton, Executive Director of Northumberland’s LSC. Covering a largely rural area, she’s concerned that women in particular are missing out because traditional centres of learning are difficult to get to. She’s committed to providing more opportunities within ‘pram-pushing distance’.

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