THE Education Council is carrying out a second learning trends survey to help shape future lifelong-learning policies. The initial survey was carried out three years ago to find out islanders’ attitudes to learning and the impact it had on factors such as earnings, future learning habits and employment opportunities. It demonstrated that early school leavers were unlikely to undertake further training.

‘We questioned around 400 locally-educated people about how they felt about learning, how much training they had undertaken since leaving school and their future plans,’ said Wendy Morgan, who chairs the council’s lifelong learning advisory committee.

‘We are going to be asking similar questions again this year, so that we can gauge if there have been any changes over the three-year period.’

The council’s lifelong learning manager, Alun Williams, said that the information from the first survey was proving extremely useful.

‘The survey has been essential in providing an evidence base, which we have used to formulate policy and practice.

‘In particular, the focus of our work on increasing participation rates in education and training has been shaped by the fact that the survey demonstrated relatively low levels of education and training, especially among those respondents who left school early,’ he said.

The survey is supported by the Guernsey Training Agency.

‘All sectors of the community involved in learning benefit from the information provided by the survey,’ said agency chief executive Professor Richard Conder.

‘In particular it is a useful tool for providers and employers alike in assessing where skills gaps may lie. It is especially important that the research is repeated so that the island’s authorities can measure long-term changes in skills profile.’

The telephone survey will be carried out over the next few weeks by a team of trained researchers.