Adult education is one of the most important things to invest in if you want to close the worldwide skills gap and boost the economy after the effects of the pandemic. Shockingly, a high percentage of workers of multiple different industries do not have the skills that they need to progress in their careers, whether that’s in training or just qualifications. You need to make sure that you’re helping adult learners as much as possible in 2024, to close the skills gap and help British learners in their careers. Here are 4 ways you can improve adult education if you work in adult education in 2024.
Work Towards A Qualification
Across many different industries, it can be hard to get learners to complete the course if they’re not getting a necessary qualification – and even then, sometimes life gets in the way. It’s crucial that you give your adult learners a goal to work towards, whether their roofing NVQ will help them get the all important construction CSCS card or their Hair and Beauty qualification will help to get them work on film sets. Try to concentrate your efforts into helping people get their qualification, so that they can have something material that will help their career.
Accommodate Your Learners’ Needs
It has been found that one of the biggest problems in adult education today is the lack of accommodation towards many adult learners’ needs. For example, adults with dyslexia sometimes find that they cannot find the right materials that will help them get their qualification. Other neurodivergent adults also report not being able to access the right help to help them with their adult education journey. Ensuring that all of your learners have their educational needs met is crucial if you want to get more people completing qualifications that will further their careers.
Employ A Range of Materials
This should be a part of accommodating all learners’ needs – as well as organising extra time in exams, using a range of learning materials is one of the best things you can do if you want to help learners in adult education. This will not only help workers who have additional support needs – everyone has a different learning style, and using a range of materials will only help everyone find the way that they learn best. Using photos, diagrams, text, recordings, video, and more will help all of your learners get the most out of their learning experience.
Prepare For The Future Economy
A huge part of making sure that adult learners can get the resources they need is through identifying the best qualifications for them. For example, the push for sustainability has made a huge change across thousands of industries and green jobs will soon become the thing to have. Green training such as retrofit qualifications could significantly help adult learners find solid work and upskill their career. When you prepare your adult learners for the future economy, they will be able to choose qualifications that benefit them – taking their careers to the next level.