Right2Learn: what we did in our first 90 days

Dear Supporter,

We are 90 days old – thanks for your help so far!

Thank you for your help in the three months since we launched the Right2Learn campaign last December.

When we started the campaign, we hoped that our call for a right to learn throughout life would resonate. However, we have been overwhelmed by the breadth of support the campaign has received across the board – from practitioners on the front line, college and university leaders, trade unions and employers’ associations, MPs and Peers, academic experts and of course our friends in sister lifelong learning campaigns.

What we have done in our first 90 days

We have:

• established the R2L website (right2learn.co.uk) as a forum for discussion and debate about the campaign and published a range of well received blogs and articles from many of our leading supporters which you can re-read here https://right2learn.co.uk/content-hub/
• gained hundreds of new supporters via our website and our @right2_learn twitter account
• published numerous articles in the media making the case for the right to learn including Gordon Marsden’s much praised critique of the government’s skills policy https://www.tes.com/news/fe-white-paper-colleges-now-best-times-and-worst-times-fe
• published our Right2Learn Manifesto with 5 key themes against which we can judge government policy https://right2learn.co.uk/content-hub/what-should-we-do-now-a-manifesto-from-the-right2learn-campaign/
• been regularly quoted in the press as an advocate for the expansion of educational opportunities for all and a genuine ‘levelling up’
• held politicians to account such as when our question on the government’s flawed ‘employer led’ proposals was chosen to be to put to the Skills Minister in her key interview on the day the FE White Paper was published
• collaborated with numerous campaigning groups including our friends from the College of the Future, NACRO, the Centenary Commission for Adult Learning, the JoyFE Collective and Gordon Brown’s Alliance for Full Employment
• delivered online briefings for policy makers and politicians across the UK on the case for a right to learn, most recently to Welsh Assembly members

Only this week our Steering Committee were pleased to add their names to the great letter published in the Daily Telegraph calling for more investment in adult education which was signed by 137 public figures from the worlds of politics and education. The letter which was brilliantly put together by the excellent Centenary Commission can be read here: https://www.centenarycommission.org/letter-to-the-daily-telegraph-on-adult-education-lifelong-learning.

We have bigger plans still for the rest of 2021!

We want to ensure there is a strong focus on the impact of Covid on HE and FE capacity; continue to increase our political influence through briefings, policy interventions and collaborations; bring together our Right2Learn blogs into a new publication aimed at widening political support for the campaign; and put together an online conference with keynote speakers and debates in which we can discuss our next steps together.

But we cannot do all this without your help.

We Need Your Continued Involvement and support

As we move into this next campaign phase, we need your support more than ever.

Will you share our campaign with work, union, or campaign colleagues so we can broaden our supporter base further?

Do you have ideas for blogs, publications, or events that we could help with?

Will you continue to support our online profile by retweeting us or offering to do us a blog on your passion for lifelong learning?

Do you have any contacts that you could share which would help us to extend our reach?

Would you be able to help us expand and update our Right2Learn Manifesto as we move into a post-lockdown environment?

Will you let us know of groups that you are involved with – either locally or nationally – with whom we could work collaboratively?

It has been a fast and furious three months for us as your Steering Group and we have enjoyed every minute. Now however we would welcome your practical help to maintain our momentum and increase our reach so any offers of help and of volunteering – especially with running our events and Comms – would be really appreciated.

Thank you again for helping us to get this far.

Gordon, Vicky, Graeme, and Matt

Right2Learn Steering Committee