Skills and Learning For Life

The Skills and Learning for Life project was developed with funding from the Australian Government to coincide with Adult Learners Week in 2012. Through this project, the CBAA conducted a national promotion and information campaign consisting of 12 one-minute and 10 five-minute audio segments, broadcast nationally on community radio stations around the country.

The total of 72 announcements were aired over a three-month period on rotation, including: 

• A series of one-minute segments providing information on adult learning opportunities and participation in further learning
• A series of five-minute segments featuring interviews with adult learners, explaining in their own words how further education has helped them in their own lives and careers 

These broadcasts promoted the importance of lifelong learning and used the stories of 10 adult learners from diverse backgrounds to highlight the benefits of further learning. All project audio was distributed, along with a printed booklet featuring stories of adult learners, to community radio stations around Australia.

The project aimed to:  

• Raise awareness of adult education; 
• Highlight the opportunities for participation in ACE; 
• Promote the benefits of participation in further learning; 
• Address barriers to participation; and 
• Encourage people from diverse cultural backgrounds and remote areas to participate in adult learning. 

The project evaluation suggests a large national audience was reached through this project, estimated at over 9 million Australians. 97% of stations surveyed had broadcast the short (1-2 minute) messages from the project regularly, with 88% of these stations using this content more than five times a week. 94% of stations had broadcast the longer (5 minute) messages from the project, with over 70% using this content more than five times a week.

The evaluation also suggested that rather than passively playing the audio content to their audiences, community radio stations actively engaged with the project content and helped to promote adult education at a local level. Over a quarter of stations conducted local interviews about adult education based on the project material they received, and over three-quarters of stations used the printed material they received to promote key messages and additional information about the project, and adult education, to their local audience.

The project was also extremely effective in changing the attitudes and behaviours of listeners towards adult learning, resulting in a large number of community members considering enrolment in adult education and/or seeking more information about courses they could participate in. 52% of those surveyed said the project content had changed their understanding of how easy or possible it would be for them to undertake adult education, while 43% said the project content had made them more likely to take steps to seek more information about adult education. Focus group members also indicated consistently that hearing project messages had changed their understanding of how possible it would be for them to undertake adult education, with a third of focus group members indicating that hearing these messages had made them more likely to consider enrolment in ACE in the future.