The number of adults signing up to learn declined by a fifth this year - threatening the Government’s commitment to lifelong learning and its determination to broaden the appeal of education.

A worrying dip - from 29 to 23 per cent of the post-school population - has been revealed by the annual survey of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education on the eve of Adult Learners Week. This is in sharp contrast with the rising trend of the past six years.

In addition, the figures mirror statistics published earlier this year by the Learning and Skills Council. In March the LSC said there were 30,000 fewer adults, and only 15,000 more 16 to 18-year-olds in further education than in 199798.

Although the figures are not directly comparable - the NIACE survey published this week measures formal and informal learning - taken together they are a challenge to both government and providers.

The national institute said: “We have made little progress over a generation in tackling the learning divide that leaves a large chunk of the UK population recognising the importance of learning to quality of life and security at work, while believing it is not for them.”

Just 42 per cent of nearly 5,000 adults surveyed said they had engaged in learning in the past three years. But the survey shows some positive gains. For the first time in 20 years the number of women participating equals the number of men. The figures for men have stood still while those for women have increased from 38 to 42 per cent since 1996. More part-timers, the bulk of whom are women, now have access to learning at work.

Alan Tuckett, director of NIACE and a co-author of the report, says the “learning divide” is alive and well.Sixty per cent of adults in professional and managerial groups are involved in learning, compared with 25 per cent in the poorest groups which include unskilled and retired people. The involvement of the poorest groups is also growing at much slower rate.

“We’ve called it One Step Forward, Two Steps Back because that is what it is like to change a culture.”

The losers in learning are those aged 17-19 and the over-75s. The number of learners aged 17-19 has fallen from 86 to 78 per cent in the last six years, and numbers have fallen off by a third for the over-75s. Increased longevity points to a need to foster learning in later life, says the survey. Other studies have shown the link between learning and improved health.

Access to the Internet is strongly linked to learning. Some 58 per cent of those with home access, and 71 per cent of those with work access, participated in learning.

A learning society for all will depend on sustained policies to stimulate demand, says NIACE.

“We are a society where nine people in 10 believe that learning makes a positive difference to their work chances, to quality of life and to their children’s prospects. Yet one in four of us still believes that learning is not for the likes of us.”

Unless that changes, the best we can expect is modest progress in learning, the survey concludes.

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