Learning at work: work-based access to higher education

The Learning at Work Project, funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, was initiated at the University of Stirling. It was developed in response to an awareness that many employed people, especially those on the shop floor, are excluded from access to higher education due to a number of situational, institutional and dispositional barriers. The Learning at Work Project seeks to provide a preparatory program for higher education that is negotiated as a tripartite agreement between employers, employeesand a university, and is based in and around the workplace. This article addresses the educational participation of adults from lower socio-economic backgrounds and the barriers they experience.