Skills for Life, work and place APPG Adult Skills Report
Today, Wednesday 21 October 2026, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Further Education and Lifelong Learning launches its inquiry report, Skills for life, work and place, in Parliament. Supported by the Association of Colleges as secretariat, the publication arrives during the national AoC Adult Learning Pays week of action. Drawing on evidence from more than 150 contributors across five evidence sessions, the report sets out a cross-party case for treating adult learning as foundational economic and civic infrastructure.
Mindful Education was among the organisations contributing evidence to the four-month inquiry, joining colleges, employers, trade unions, and local authorities to examine how policy and delivery must evolve.
Adult learning as an economic growth imperative
Public spending on classroom-based adult learning has fallen by roughly 70% in real terms since the early 2000s, leaving classroom provision depleted.
The inquiry findings indicate that policy expectations have outpaced funding reality. According to the call for evidence, only 2% of respondents feel that the adult education system currently meets the skills needs of the economy to a great extent. 83% cite funding levels as a major barrier to addressing skills shortages, with 67% rating public investment as not at all adequate.
This shortfall directly hits access. Over half (56%) of providers report that they often or very often turn adult learners away due to inflexible funding rules or eligibility constraints, meaning capacity is capped even where learner demand is high.
Delivery flexibility and qualification constraints
Rigid qualification delivery requirements and prescriptive funding rules prevent providers from tailoring training to the needs of working adults and employers.
The report reveals that 69% of respondents find rigid qualification structures and eligibility criteria limit their ability to design employer-responsive provision. Only 3% report facing no limitations. Contributors called for greater flexibility to support “modular, blended and community-based learning”, and the APPG’s recommendations pick up the modular theme, calling for more flexible adult qualifications and ASF rules, and for modular, stackable short-course provision.
Within this landscape, delivering blended learning to adults using tutor-supported models may help providers introduce modular upskilling while maintaining vital on-campus teaching.
Blended learning, supported by a tutor, is the basis of Mindful Education’s Online and On Campus model. Learners at our partner colleges frequently share their experiences of blended learning in our learner experience surveys:
“To have the best of both worlds, it really means that you can dedicate your time while you’re at home, but then you have an amazing tutor who will back you up and help you where you need. You get both. This is definitely the way that I’d prefer to learn.”
Provider capacity and estate pressures
Colleges face severe capacity bottlenecks caused by physical space constraints and shortages of specialist vocational staff.
Nearly two fifths (39%) of respondents identify staff capacity as a major barrier, with colleges struggling to match private sector pay in fields such as engineering, green technology and digital. At the same time, growth in the 16-18 demographic means younger students and adult learners are competing for the same campus workshops and classrooms.
While the report does not offer a solution to estate pressure, it does highlight evidence that VAT rules can limit adult learners’ access to buildings funded for 16–18 provision. We believe that well-designed blended models can be part of the solution, letting colleges reach more adults without restrictions or capital expansion that may not be available.
Progression barriers beyond Level 3
The gap between publicly funded study up to Level 3 and loan-funded study at Level 4 risks creating a significant drop-off point for adult learners.
While many adults can study up to Level 3 with public funding, progression to Level 4 and above relies on Advanced Learner Loans or the forthcoming Lifelong Learning Entitlement. The inquiry warns this could cause a significant drop-off in adult participation at exactly the point people need to progress.
The report recommends a guaranteed, funded minimum offer from entry level to Level 3, a grant-based affordability offer for learners below Level 4, and more modular, stackable provision to complement the Lifelong Learning Entitlement.
For progression routes such as accounting and management, these would help adults keep moving rather than stalling at Level 3.
Managing AI shifts and workplace demand
Automation is transforming routine mid-career roles and eroding traditional entry-level positions across England.
The inquiry highlights that workers in their 40s and 50s are particularly vulnerable to technological displacement, yet only 2% of respondents feel adult education is currently utilised to a great extent to address workforce transitions such as AI and net zero. The APPG recommends dedicated, well-funded retraining pathways for mid-career adults, with modular rapid-update training, to stop AI-driven disruption widening inequality and economic inactivity.
Employer investment remains a critical hurdle: 63% of respondents state that the current system fails to incentivise employer co-investment in training. Flexible workplace delivery, accessible employer engagement, and practical workforce development solutions reduce time away from work, helping small and medium businesses upskill staff sustainably.
Our first-hand experience of career changers retraining while working shows that adaptable study schedules are essential for adults navigating these labour market transitions.
“The Online and On Campus course is very helpful because as a working mum I needed something flexible. I needed something where I could study at my own pace and Online and On Campus offers me that.”
Widening social value and next steps
Evidence demonstrates that adult education acts as preventative health and social infrastructure, but these broader returns remain largely unrecognised by national funding mechanisms.
Seventy per cent of respondents report that current funding systems recognise outcomes beyond qualifications, such as health and wellbeing and community resilience, only to a small extent (49%) or not at all (21%). Chapter 2 of the report cites the evidence submitted to the inquiry by Mindful Education:
“Lifelong learning is a huge economic, social and political opportunity for the UK... [people] want to build better futures for themselves and their families.”
The APPG proposals establish a comprehensive sector roadmap, though they represent parliamentary recommendations rather than enacted policy. The Chancellor has already committed to ‘rebirthing’ the Union Learning Fund, one of the inquiry’s strongest themes.
Of the APPG’s 12 recommendations, four stand out to us:
- A cohesive national vision: Establishing a single lifelong learning strategy that aligns national priorities while empowering mayoral authorities to meet local needs
- Multi-year funding settlements: Moving away from short-term, fragmented funding streams towards predictable, multi-year budgets so colleges can invest strategically in staff and provision
- Adult Skills Fund flexibility: Recognising the value of tailored learning, simplifying funding rules, and supporting modular, stackable and short-course provision
- A statutory minimum entitlement: Guaranteeing funded, portable access to essential education from entry level up to Level 3 regardless of regional postcode
What the APPG inquiry report means for colleges
The report won’t change funding overnight, but it does give colleges a clear, cross-party mandate to argue for more flexible adult provision now. With a lack of classroom availability, nationwide shortages of specialist tutors, and demand outstripping ASF allocations, growing adult numbers cannot rely on more buildings or bigger budgets alone.
We believe that blended, tutor-supported delivery is part of the solution – enabling adults to study around work and family, while retaining the face-to-face teaching and pastoral support that learners who contributed to the inquiry valued so highly. It also helps colleges build progression routes from Level 2 to Level 3 and beyond, ready for any new entitlement or affordability grants. As mayoral authorities draw up investment plans and the DWP takes the lead on adult skills, colleges that can show flexible, employer-responsive provision with clear outcomes will be well-placed to make the case for funding.
With the publication of Skills for life, work and place, the evidence base is clear: reinvesting in flexible, accessible adult education is essential to building an adaptable workforce and supporting communities nationwide.
Click to read the full report ➡️.
The Mindful Education Partnerships Team supports both new and existing partners in the planning and implementation of their curriculum strategy for professional courses and apprenticeships.