Do evening classes exist anymore?

[Cooper77]

I am in north Essex and would like to learn a language – just as a hobby in the evenings or on a Saturday morning. But they seem to have disappeared. I can't find such a thing. As a kid, in the 1990s, I remember various family members going off to do evening classes in Spanish, and even an uncle who took an evening class in philosophy. But these things don't seem to exist anymore. Or am I looking in the wrong place? Is it because so much is now taught online (facetime, skype or whatever it's called)?

Often based at 6th form colleges/FE colleges, we have tons where we are.

Definitely. Enquire with local colleges, universities and libraries. I did a beginners Spanish class in the evenings run by the local University; open to the public

My brother does Spanish online.

He has a regular appointment with a Spanish lady.

So that could be an option for you.

Quite a lot are online now I think - although I think some are gradually moving back to in person as people want to get out more.

I'm in London and doing a language course at City Lit at the moment and they have loads of options either in person or online as well. I prefer in person - I found when we had a couple of sessions online as the teacher couldn't make it in, the energy was really different and I was no where near as focussed.

Look at colleges. They usually have adult education classes on offer.

I live in Essex and there is a Spanish language class in our village! DM me if you want to know where, OP, and I’ll send you the details if it isn’t too far.

Our local college has loads

Local adult education centres are still up and running if there's one in your area 😊

I think overall the number have reduced as funding got cut - but they do exist.

Here it's all welsh for language and many are actually on-line not at physical locations and actually aren't all college run - college has a few and often seem aimed at under 25 - but it does vary widely.

There are generally more app and on-line resources though - https://www.duolingo.com/ a free one.

Nowhere near Essex but the number offered has massively reduced over the years in my area and a lot of the few that are advertised get cancelled due to lack of interest. Local university used to offer language classes open to the public as part of a life-long learning thing. Now it's staff and students only. Don't doubt that some places still have loads of them but recreational evening classes (plenty of options for somebody wanting to do an Access course or level 2 maths or English) barely exist where I am.

New city college in west Essex does some.

Very few these days and I live in a big city. I noticed as I have been looking myself. I used to go to a language course in the daytime and that has gone now since the pandemic. Some classes went online and I tried a few but found it hard. The university offers crash courses in some languages in the summer holidays.

Contact your local adult education centre..... they have loads of different courses on. Or try the county council website.

Nothing helpful to add OP but I've been looking for something similar myself and getting nowhere. I'm about to retire and would like to do Spanish classes and/or A leveI History but can't find anything. I realise there is lots online but part of the motivation is about getting out and meeting new people.

I remember my mum doing A level English when I was a teenager but all the courses in my local college now seem to be more vocational.

They're still around but fewer in number as the way they are funded changed so much more expensive than say 20 years ago

I teach 2 evenings a week in adult education, plus daytime sessions too. Not a language. Our classes are over-subscribed we could easily run 50% more classes but don't have the class room space. It's wonderful there's such a hunger for people to learn stuff!

Have you tried Colchester Institute OP?

www.colchester.ac.uk/courses/areas-of-study/foreign-languages/

Our local (enormous) secondary school used to do evening classes run by the adult education department of the LEA. However, that all stopped when the school became an academy and they decided to start charging large sums to anyone who wanted to hire the premises in the evenings. So the adult classes stopped dead. Such a shame, they used to do all sorts of things including sports.

Our library and community centre both have some. Larger colleges also. I always had an evening class of some sort on the go pre DCs and definitely want to do more in the future. A lot locally seem to be daytime not evening though.

There are a fair few leisure classes (photography, cake decorating, art etc) round here, but not much in the way of academic topics. Years ago I did Accounting at GCSE & A-level and English Lit at A-level too, but there's nowhere at all that does A-levels or GCSEs any more.

I've been learning French on the free version of this for over a year. It's not perfect, but I'd be able to manage the basics if I visit France. I like it, because it's bite size chunks.

Look at www.languageforfun.org for evening classes in French, Spanish or Italian, local to you or online. For other things look up local adult education.

Lots around here. FE education colleges, libraries, the universities, school of music, and some more unusual spaces like a co-working space for manual workers which has collective carpentry tools etc (friend learning woodwork there).

For language classes, my university offers language classes in the evenings open to external students.

Most councils run some sort of Adult Education but nowadays there is much less than there used to be and most is in the daytime. You are lucky if there is one near you.

I teach hairdressing during two evenings for adults, these are qualifications though, not a hobby type course. If it's not funded we don't run it. FE college in Leicestershire.

Only vocational here (inner London borough), it's so sad! So sewing machine operation or eFl or maths retake. No more woodwork, spanish etc.