Top Getting Started Sympathetic professionals can play a part in getting adult learners together in order to set up a learner's forum. But it is really important that the initiative is developed and sustained by learners and not dominated or controlled by providers. Be sure to include learners with different experiences, from different backgrounds, involved in different kinds of programmes. The role of chairperson, for example, will be critical. Make sure no one is excluded from taking part by the costs involved.
Groups work best when they have a clear purpose.
It is also important to develop medium and long term aims so that the group members have a clear goal to work towards. This might include organising a learner's event or joint consultation with key decision-makers. It might involve establishing contact with learner's forums in other areas or joining a national network. He says 'The White Paper is an opportunity to engage the learners themselves in a focussed policy agenda. Policy makers need to listen to the voice of learners when shaping policy'.