Well hello...

Every so often, I'm going to use this space to share a few thoughts about the adult and community landscape across these islands - and crucially some of the differences in policy discourse and culture between nations/regions/jurisdictions.

In my time with City & Guilds, I was always conscious of the organisation struggling to reconcile its desire to help learners wherever they are with the reality that the vast majority of its activity (and income!) is focused on England - with English policy discourses and culture inherent to much of its strategic priorities and thinking. On many occasions (especially after relocating to Derry) I found myself politely chiding colleagues for their Anglocentrism and subconscious references to England-specific products and terminology when addressing audiences in other parts of the UK.

Even the terms 'maths' and 'English' were problematic - pushed strongly by policymakers within the British government since 2010 as part of its policy prescription for England, whilst discourse elsewhere tended to prefer less 'schooly' terms like numeracy, application of number, literacy and communication when referring to post-16 and adult provision. I found practitioners in Wales tended to be more disposed towards collaboration and networking than their counterparts in England, for whom marketisation and fierce competition between providers had perhaps become more ingrained.

Within the island of Ireland there's a growing gulf between an exciting array of policy developments and investment in the south (Adult Literacy for Life; technological universities; expanding apprenticeships; creating a unified tertiary system), and the grim policy paralysis and turbo-charged austerity currently afflicting the north. Despite this contrast (and especially with the Irish government now stepping in to help mitigate some of these cuts), there's still remarkably little north-south dialogue between practitioners or deep insight into each others' experiences.

It's one thing NATECLA's recently formed Island of Ireland Branch hopes to play a part in addressing - especially in the absence of a coherent ESOL strategy on either side of the border.

The more we can learn about - and from - each other, then frankly the better. But not just superficially, really understand the contextual differences in which we work - as well as the common challenges we face.