What are they?

The Sussex Learning Network (SLN) was one of the first Lifelong Learning Networks (LLNs) to be approved and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). In 2005 it was given £3 million to develop its activities up to December 2008 as part of a national initiative that involved 116 universities and 250 further education colleges across England. In all 31 LLNs were created with a combined budget in excess of £100 million. Most received three years' funding.

In 2009, the SLN was awarded a further £1.7 million by HEFCE to develop employer engagement with higher education until May 2012. 

The work of the LLNs

The case for Lifelong Learning Networks (LLNs) was first made by Sir Howard Newby, then chief executive of HEFCE, in the March 2004 Colin Bell Memorial Lecture. The challenge he outlined for these networks was to:

• combine the strengths of a number of diverse institutions
• provide support for learners on vocational pathways
• bring greater clarity, coherence and certainty to progression opportunities
• develop the curriculum as appropriate to facilitate progression
• value vocational learning outcomes and provide opportunities for vocational learners to build on earlier learning
• locate the progression strategy within a commitment to lifelong learning, ensuring that learners have access to a range of progression opportunities such that they can move between different kinds of vocational-academic programmes as their interests, needs and abilities develop.

The Sussex Learning Network was one of eight LLNs to take part in an interim evaluation, which was produced for HEFCE by the Open University's Centre for Higher Education Research and Information. The interim report was published on 11 April 2008 by HEFCE and shows that Lifelong Learning Networks (LLNs) have helped to improve the progression opportunities for vocational learners.

Find out more

HEFCE agreed funding to support the National Lifelong Learning Network Practitioner Forum in March 2006. Hosted by Higher York, the forum was established as a network for sharing ideas, good practice, policy developments, and is a two-way conduit with others in pursuit of the wider objectives of LLNs

If you would like to know more about the work of LLNs nationally, please visit the LLN National Forum website