to be shocked at the demise of adult education?

Thing is I want to do things like Politics GCSE not sewing! 😭

The difference with privately run courses is the cost. They are very expensive.

I think what a lot of folks on the thread are missing is that while colleges no longer offer these courses there is so much more out there provided by social groups, libraries, museums or private tutors.
If I wanted to learn to (for example) sew there's loads of classes and groups I could go to in all sorts of different venues. Even Hobbycraft do groups/classes.
Classes are out there. Just not at colleges.

Yanbu. I think the Tories cut it back to almost nothing a decade ago.
I used to get little brochures from our local college about GCSE / a-levels etc and none of it exists anymore. The college is shut in the evening.
I'd been planning to do the car maintenance course once my kids were old enough to be left but it no longer runs.

Even City Lit is a PITA - I work part time and found a course with several modules which worked for me. Then they didn’t run part 2 the next term. Then they did run part 2 the term after, but changed the time to one I couldn’t do! And then more of the same - two years later I’m hoping to start part 2 next term as it is finally running on a day I can do.

I feel the same OP. I'm in NZ and it's just the same here. I used to look forward to the little books we got at the beginning of each year listing the numerous courses we could take at the local secondary school in the evenings. So much fun browsing and choosing which one to do, and I did quite a few over the years. I think it's really sad that these are no longer available, and we are all the poorer for it.

I have just had a look at Warrington and Vale Royal College, whilst there is no humanities or English Language etc they do have quite a few courses ranging from MOT checking, Spanish, floristry, wall building etc.

I was pleasantly surprised considering Warrington council is terrible at financial management (they have the highest debt of all the councils in England).

The courses are around £55 for 6 weeks. I wonder how they can offer them when others can't.

I'm in the same boat. Divorced a couple of years ago, with a 50:50 coparenting arrangement. Thought it would be a great opportunity to enroll on some courses, to learn new skills and meet new people. Not a chance! Very disappointing.

The government reduced the subsidies for over-19s taking FE evening courses. This meant that colleges had to put the prices up for adult learners instead, which in turn meant reduced numbers of applications from adult learners. That meant the courses couldn't run because of limited numbers, and now there are no evening courses.

I can date this so precisely, because I had to drop my plans to do a particular evening A-level course. Yes, I am still bitter.

I'm in Hampshire, where are you?

I used to love looking through my Mum's adult education catalogues when I was young. There was everything from archaeology to typing to flower arranging. My Mum did loads of evening classes and even took her Maths A-level this way. I did yoga and Italian evening classes through the local council in the mid 2000s so unsurprising to find out it tailed off during the Austerity period.

I was looking recently at what was on offer for adult learners as my autistic teen DC suffers very badly with her mental health and isn't able to attend school. I am often told there's plenty of time for her to get qualifications when she's older if she can't manage now but actually that isn't true. It's almost impossible to take any GCSEs other than English or Maths if you don't pass them at school and even then the time frame is limited. There is little or no opportunity to go on and study A-Levels as an adult.

Our library does some daytime language classes.

Completely agree with you. Nothing here now, and I remember language courses, and humanities and all sorts of crafts 20 years ago.

gawd I feel you. I remember going through that catalogue and doing courses in creative writing, easy car mechanics, art, pottery, drama...That was in the nineties when I was young and bored living in the suburbs. I started looking again last year as my kids were both at uni and I wanted to do some DIY ones like basic woodworking, basic plumbing, tiling etc. Thought pickings would be better as I live in a town now and near to several other decent sized towns. There is nothing at all near me and the nearest ones are ££££ for a one day or you commit to a week.

I have a couple of online open uni ones on the go but it's not the same as sitting in a draughty church hall or community centre with a class made up of all sorts eager to learn. I guess most of the community centres and youth clubs have been closed.

You're absolutely right - it's so sad.

Couple of ideas that we have locally in a small city in the Midlands - look for courses put on by museums - we have regular jewellery-making ones.

Independent cinemas sometimes have film courses - I went on one about Film Noir a few years ago which was really interesting.

Join a book group based in a city centre or a library - ime these tend to be more book-focused than wine and gossip-focused. . Although it's not quite the same, it is definitely a place to meet people and talk about literature.

Just to add, the courses are quite pricey.

Where I live, the local secondary school offers adult education classes in lots of different subjects. I did their French course a few years ago and learned a lot from it. They do lots of different languages, art, dancing - you name it, there's a class for it.

Part of the reasoning is going to be demand as well though, just because some people online would like these classes; it doesn’t automatically mean there’s enough demand in your local area to justify running the class.

ultimately everything is a business and the adult education providers will have to balance running such classes with the cost involved.

i highly disagree that there isn’t much scope for adult education though. There’s just different words for it eg “skills bootcamp”. There’s a lot of government funded schemes and you might have better luck checking the gov.uk website or national career’s service.

I run Italian evening classes at my local community centre. I'm struggling to get clients, please come along!

Just out of interest, what would people have the government cut instead, in order to increase funding for adult education to restore this sort of thing?

But the reason they are no longer on offer is because when subsidies were cut people weren't willing to pay the true cost for it - lots of posters on this thread reminicising about very affordable classes /courses and remembering taking multiple - that was only possible because they were heavily subsidised so offered at a very affordable price point for people.

It was basically the goverment subsidising and enabling nice hobbies for people rather than them having to fund them themselves. Its absolutely still possible to do these sorts of courses eg floristry, cake decorating, photography, languages - you simply have to pay a lot more now and do a bit of research to find the courses/providers, and its likely to be a smaller group because its expensive.

If the demand was there and people were willing to pay the true cost of the course, these things would still be on offer.

In the early 90s, I did A level Archaeology at evening classes, early 2000s I did maths GCSE, Access and Day Skipper at various times. I thought about doing something this year, looked and there was nothing. Gutted.

How did it happen? The fucking tories and ideological austerity.

Massive cuts to council budgets from central government, this combined with the cost of adult social care means that councils can no longer afford to run adult education