What will Labour do for Adult Education?

[BlueMoonOnce]

I remember when there used to be a variety of community classes available to attend as an adult. There was a huge variety of hobby classes and opportunities to get additional qualifications.

I suspect their disappearance is probably connected to cuts to council funding. Can we expect this to change in the future?

Good question. I used to teach some adult education and it offered significant opportunities. I also used to attend lots of things myself. It’s a huge loss and something that’s not discussed much.

It is due to a reduction in government funding which subsidised course fees and a focus on core skills like English and Maths, work related skills and encouraging retraining and back to work. So leisure courses such as art, floristry, cultural based groups have suffered. Also tutors were paid an hourly rate but contracts can be cancelled if a course is undersubscribed at short notice and there is often onerous paperwork to complete on top of teaching hours.

Just saw this thread at the bottom of the page and thought I'd revive it in case there had been any talk around adult Ed.

Certainly I'd like an end to the zero hours type contracts!