Life Long Learning
	Artskills opens doors to learning for people that most agencies have given up on or written-off as hopeless. Our prevocational, motivational programme offers a stepping stone to progression, persuading people that previous negative experiences of school and training are not the norm and that it is an achievable goal to progress to higher level learning.
	Skills shortages are becoming the norm and around two million new workers are going to be needed in the coming years, to meet demand. However, some young people are a long way off entering the labour market and need a lot of skills preparation, regularity and confidence building. Others are only a bit of faith, trust and transferable skills away, which is why 20% of our trainees, on average, gain employment after the course.		Learning should continue while working, and that is why Artskills was one of the first organisations on Merseyside to elect a trade union learning rep. Promoting the ILA’s - Independent Learning Accounts and Trade Union Learning Fund, their award was presented by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, David Blunket.