BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION IN NON-FORMAL LEARNING

Perceived barriers to non-formal learning (either work-related training or personal interest learning) provide insight into why certain people or groups of people may not participate in further learning opportunities. People may have responsibilities they must balance against the desire to participate in training and learning activities. Due to these demands, there are barriers that prevent people from undertaking training that they may otherwise wish to do. These can include, lack of time, employer support or money, language barriers and access to childcare or transportation.

An estimated 2.5 million people aged 15-74 years (15%) reported they had wanted to participate in more non-formal learning during the 12 months to April 2013. This includes people who had already participated in some non-formal learning but wanted to do more. Women were more likely than men to report wanting to do (more) non-formal learning (18% compared to 12%). Unemployed people (22%) were more likely than people employed full-time (16%) and part-time (17%) to report they wanted to participate in (more) non-formal learning.

People who had participated in non-formal learning in the 12 months prior to the survey, were more likely to report wanting to participate in more non-formal learning than those who had not done any non-formal training (23% compared with 11%). People who had completed a non-school qualification were twice as likely than those without a non-school qualification to want to participate in (more) non-formal learning (19% compared with 9.0%). (Table 13).


MAIN BARRIER TO PARTICIPATION

For people who wanted to participate in non-formal learning but did not, or participated in non-formal learning but wanted to do more, the main barriers to participation were;

• too much work or no time (48%)
• financial reasons (24%)
• personal reasons (12%)
• course not available (5.4%).

Men were more likely than women to report too much work or no time as the main barrier to participation (53% compared with 45%), whereas a higher proportion of women reported personal reasons, such as ill health or a lack of childcare, as their main barrier (15% compared with 7.2%). Financial reasons were more likely to be the main barrier to participation for people aged 15-24 years (31%) when compared with older people aged 55-64 years (19%) and 65-74 years (14%).

For unemployed people, financial reasons were the main barrier to participation (44%). (Table 14)


Graph 4.1: Main barrier to participation in non-formal learning by employment status - April 2013 (a)