Well-being and resilience

Adult learning courses bring people together around a common interest and help develop a sense of community (in-person or digitally), contributing to better social inclusion and, in turn, a greater sense of well-being and resilience.

Challenges

  • High risk of burnout and other stressrelated mental and physical health issues, social isolation, feelings of hopelessness in the face of many challenges.
  • Lack of self-confidence, self-efficacy and sense of purpose.
  • Lack of support and tools for resilience.

What adult learning and education can do for well-being and resilience

Well-being is also directly related to the concept of resilience or, in other words, the process of successfully adapting to disorienting life experiences such as health-related problems, life transitions, and age-elated changes. It also entails behavioural adjustment to demands associated with social, economic, and environmental changes and, as well as external crises in general.

Moreover, ALE courses bring people together around a common interest and help develop a sense of community (in-person or digitally), contributing to better social inclusion and, in turn, a greater sense of well-being and resilience. In addition, ALE promotes health and well-being through a wide range of exercise and sports programmes for all interests and age groups, as well as courses on nutrition and healthy cooking.

It is important to note that these skills contribute not only to the personal development and fulfilment of adult learners but also have a very positive impact on their social life and their professional development. Actively promoting worker well-being in and out of the workplace helps to prevent long-term inactivity due to burnout and other stress-related health problems. It also helps to retain workers and promote job satisfaction.

ALE influences people’s income and employability, as well as the attitudes and behaviours that affect people’s mental well-being…. “More accurately, it offers people resources that they can use to make changes in their own lives. These changes may be particularly important for those who have benefited least from initial education.

What we do not yet know fully is what kinds of resources help people to make what kinds of changes. What we do know is that very practical capabilities—sometimes spoken of disparagingly as ‘basic skills’ or even ‘merely instrumental’—can have dramatic consequences for people’s lives. Beyond that, the evidence simply tells us that adult learning provides resources that can help fuel important changes but cannot be seen as a ‘pedagogic aspirin’ that works instantly for everyone. But we can be reasonably confident that at its best, adult learning encompasses the instrumental and practical, but also transcends it to offer what Raymond Williams (1983) called ‘resources for a journey of hope.’”

 

 

“Positive People” is a partnership project led by the social enterprise Pluss, operating across Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset to offer a learning lifeline to the most socially excluded and vulnerable people in society. The project includes a wide range of learning opportunities tailored to individual needs. Just a few examples of activities delivered through Positive People include the Feel Good Shop in Plymouth, which brought the community together to learn how to live a healthy life through the project’s health and well-being partners, learn about managing finances from the Citizens Advice Bureau, learn how to get the most out of digital devices, and much more. Positive People also teaches people to live sustainably and inclusively by running activities around a sustainable, ethical life, learning how to connect with others, and giving something back to the community.

A smiling woman“I believe my journey to recovery started in a coffee group at the Cork Migrant Centre because apart from just going and sharing as a migrant woman, they also offer short courses and training. That was where I did the Train the Trainer course that later allowed me to facilitate parenting workshops to help other migrant women who were struggling with the new law and the cultural difference. We also got information on workshops happening in the community. They let me know about the intercultural dialogue training, and I attended that and now facilitate it. Truly in that space, we all got empowered. When you start a course, you get into a routine. You wake up every morning and have something to look forward to. You meet like-minded people to connect with. Then you start reading, your mind starts getting bigger, and your imagination gets bigger. You start learning different things. You become a part of a group of powerful and interesting people who bring stories. You start feeling you belong to something. You get an education. You get empowered. It just shifts everything! Education has helped my mental health and has positively impacted my life and my family. Now, I am back in college studying a post-graduate in Advanced Family Law at University College Cork.”