Adult Learners’ Week

Adult Learners’ Week is the UK’s largest celebration of learning and takes place in May each year – this year from Saturday 17 to Friday 23 May 2008. Adult Learners’ Week promotes education and training for adults. It also provides access to information and guidance, motivates more and different adults to participate in learning and celebrates their learning achievements.

Adult Learners’ Week is co-ordinated by NIACE, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, and is supported by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the European Social Fund. It has additional support from learndirect and Ofcom.

Every year, thousands of events and tens of thousands of people get involved in activities to promote adult learning and this is a great opportunity for museums, libraries and archives to showcase what they have to offer. Further advice on planning an event can be obtained from the MLA West Midlands and NIACE publication The Joint Venture, or from the NIACE website.

Adult Learners’ Week Awards

Each May, NIACE presents a series of awards for adult learners which aim to celebrate the achievements of an inspirational group of people. This year, MLA West Midlands is proud to be sponsoring a regional award for the first time. This will recognise the ability of the museum, library and archive sector in the West Midlands to contribute to the adult learning and skills agenda. The MLA West Midlands Award will be presented at the NIACE regional awards ceremony in Stoke-on-Trent on 21 May 2008.

Inspire

There are over 3000 Inspire libraries throughout England as well as an expanding group in Northern Ireland. These libraries are all committed to supporting learning in its widest sense and together they provide a seamless pathway to the information and inspiration library users are seeking, wherever it may be found. To further improve access, the project has developed the Findit! website which currently holds descriptions of around 600 collections in libraries in all parts of the country.

In the West Midlands, Inspire libraries come from a wide range of sectors, including HE, public, FE, health and cathedral libraries. The regional Steering Group meets quarterly and brings together representatives from active sub-regional groups with MLA West Midlands to discuss progress and plan the further embedding of the scheme.