Tom Schuller Appointed Director of Commission of Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning

NIACE Press Release

Tom Schuller - the current head of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - has been appointed as Director of The Commission of Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning.

Tom Schuller said, “I’m absolutely delighted to be centrally involved in the Commission of Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning. It is a huge and unique opportunity to make a difference to how people of all ages have access to learning – something I have advocated for many years.  My experience in an international context at OECD shows me a major paradox. All countries are aware of the challenge  to  our educations systems by demographic, social and economic change, but very few are really committed to lifelong learning to meet these challenges at a strategic level.   Boosting levels of young people’s achievement is not enough.    We need a radical, practical and imaginative rethink of the best ways of enabling adults to learn, and of giving the biggest bang for the educational buck.”    

He continued, “I honestly believe that with this inquiry we can draw on different strands within the UK to offer a policy model to the world, as a country with a real commitment to innovative thinking and strategic action.“

Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said, “Tom Schuller is an outstanding adult educator, and there’s no one better qualified to shape the work of the Commission of Inquiry and with Sir David Watson as Chair the Commission will have a formidable leadership. Tom’s influential work includes – in the early  90s - for the Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age, his leadership of the Centre for the Wider Benefits of Learning, University of London and his current role as the head of Centre for Educational Research and Innovation at OECD.   Above all Tom has an ability to see problems afresh, to think outside his box and we’re delighted to have secured him for the NIACE-sponsored Inquiry.”

1. The Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning – sponsored by NIACE - was launched on 25th September 2007 and will report in March 2009.  During the inquiry, experts from government, business, academia, trade unions, public service, providers and the voluntary and community sector, as well as learners, will identify a broad consensus for the future direction of adult learning policy in the UK.  More information available at: www.lifelonglearninginquiry.org.uk

2. Tom Schuller has spent over 20 years working and researching on the education of adults in Scotland and England.  He was Dean of the Faculty of Birkbeck, University of London, and co-director of the Research Centre on the Wider Benefits of Learning, before moving in 2003 to OECD in Paris as Head of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI). CERI is a unique unit for international comparative policy research on education in its economic and social context.  It is located within OECD , usually referred to as  an intergovernmental think-tank, based in Paris, with 30 Member countries.  His most recent books are: Understanding the Social Outcomes of Learning (OECD, 2007),  Evidence in Education:  Linking Research and Policy (OECD 2007), and The Benefits of Learning (Routledge Falmer 2004).

3. The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is the leading non-government organisation for lifelong learning in England, and exists to encourage more and different adults to engage in better-quality learning of all kinds and campaigns for, and celebrates the achievements of, all adult learners.

Read more >