Introduction

In Chapter 3, we focused on post-16 training opportunities for people with learning difficulties. Our argument was that, due to the dominance of human capital thinking, young people with learning difficulties were marginalised in training programmes. While participation in post-16 education and training was high, with many special school leavers moving into full-time education or training, a low proportion of young people progressed into employment at the end of their training programmes. The majority of post-school programmes were designed to enhance social skills and maturity and were not directly vocational. Within FE, such programmes were often in segregated settings where young people with learning difficulties had very little contact with their mainstream peers. The minority of young people with learning difficulties who undertook vocational, employer-based training often found themselves with insufficient support to sustain them in work at the end of the training programme. There was evidence of definitional drift, so that places on training programmes designated for young people with special needs were taken up by young people experiencing social disadvantage rather than cognitive difficulties. In this chapter, we consider the nature of post-transitional educational services for people with learning difficulties. These services may be seen as part of the lifelong learning policy agenda which is being promoted increasingly within the UK and other European states. We begin by considering the current rationale for lifelong learning, in particular its status as the prime means of challenging social exclusion as well as enhancing economic productivity. Subsequently, we discuss the way in which lifelong learning has become a major player in the world of ‘joined up policy’, associated with diverse fields including employment, urban regeneration, housing and health. Subsequently, we discuss the range of agencies delivering lifelong learning to people with learning difficulties in the context of their service ethos and modus operandi. Finally, we consider the ways in which a range of services are experienced by people with learning difficulties and, in particular, the extent to which these services actually enhance their social inclusion.

Throughout Europe, educational policies to combat social exclusion and poverty have tended to focus on initial education and training systems, where efforts have been made to prepare school leavers for the labour market.