To think night classes don't seem to exist anymore?

[Mongrelsrbeautiful]

Will soon have more time on my hands and have been looking at local colleges. What's happened to night classes? In the past you could do anything from cake decorating to Italian, to car maintenance. There seems to be nothing going on for adults in my area. Are night classes a thing of the past?

Another for CityLit's online language classes! Muddling through Danish now.

No councils don't want to fund evening classes. I started doing art classes 8 years ago and almost every single one stopped after a few terms. However I felt they were deliberately putting people off going. You had to ring up to book on but you'd be told there was no point booking on as they thought it was going to be cancelled because not enough people had booked on (minimum was 8). I said but if you're telling people that you don't know how many people want to book so you won't know if you've got the minimum. I insisted that they book me on and I would get a refund if they cancelled. Class did go ahead but other people had similar stories.

I now use my flexi to take an afternoon off to do a class which has been going for years with plenty of regulars. However the building they use is being pulled down so not sure what will happen then.

My Mother tried U3A. - Dire.
She lived in Poole;- rambling strolling on footpaths summer and bridge. Main activities.
Bournemouth had something interesting but she would have to pay full subscription to Bournemouth as well.
The organisation has dropped the word University from it's title and it is no longer including learning as an objective. "Being social" seems the plan now.

I remember looking into this when I was at a bit of a social loose end after university (2010s) after some family members talked about their own experiences. My local adult college was only really doing courses that led to qualifications by then and I wasn't keen on committing to study for a qualification I didn't want or need just on the off chance I'd make friends doing it.

It makes sense to prioritise upskilling people that need it but there's a gap that I don't feel online courses fill.

It's cuts unfortunately.
However, this started in the North East before the Tories came to power. They've made it much worse of course. My Dad was teaching night classes in the 90s and 00s and towards the end of the Labour government's term the focus completely shifted. Each course had to be geared towards a qualification of some description. And there were specific groups of people who had to be targeted - such as school leavers who had minimal qualifications.
This meant that a lot of courses which were just for leisure such as the ones my Dad were teaching were cut.

So yes, it's been going on for years

Life has just got poorer and shabbier for almost everyone. Less money, culturally poorer, people look after one another less...endless results of this particular brand of Tory rule. They really are vile

Definitely classes here. Our local secondary school runs over 150 different courses. Some are during the day but most are evening classes.

Yes, that's true. DH was doing wood carving, and ended having to write long spiels about the learning objectives he was trying to achieve, then again about whether he had achieved his learning objectives. And wasn't able to get help on projects where he needed it because he was supposed to be working on some other project which he wasn't interested in but fulfilled a learning objective that had been foisted on him. A shame, because the guy teaching him was the same guy that had taught me woodwork earlier, and he was a good teacher left to his own devices.

We're really seeing Cameron's "Big Society" round here. If you want a library or a park, run it and maintain it yourself. All sorts of things that you think should be paid jobs you find are actually volunteers. Even some of the people greeting you when you turn up for a hospital appointment.

And in so doing, it diminishes the value of paid work doesn't it?

If I want to learn say Spanish because it's useful and I fancy exercising my brain and meeting new people, then I can't just volunteer and do it myself. It's sad.

I got all excited and followed your link. There's only one thing listed and I can't think of anything more boring to do 😬

Award in Mentoring Level 1

There aren't though! That's my point. I'm absolutely willing to pay, but I can't find anything to pay for! I've decided to stick to fitness classes and expand my mind with random OU courses - though after many years of obligatory studying, I wanted something a bit less formal. (Not cake decorating - I'd eat all the icing). I'm taking early retirement so can do daytime too. I'm going to volunteer though, so won't have oodles of time - I just like to be busy and challenged.

In Germany recently. Hotel backed on to a college. Full of younger students during the day and older adults until 10pm at night. Really sensible use of resources.

I tried that link too with both my current postcode and the postcode from where I lived as a new graduate. Neither turned up anything at all.

I wonder if before lockdown people were more willing to travel further afield for these things. It can't help with the numbers if more people don't fancy getting back in their car after work and driving to the next town for a class.

I live in the middle of a triangle of three decent sized towns. No WEA presence in any of them.

I checked our local U3A earlier, and yes, it's pretty grim. Card games, whist drives, crown green bowling. The photos of "events" look more like an old folk's home! No thanks!

Err! Our village lost it's library and bus service back in 2005. Remind me who was prime minister back then? And it's a Labour council too!

My mum worked in adult Ed for 30 years, she's a talented needle woman and taught sewing/dressmaking/patchwork etc.

When the funding for adult Ed got cut (and yes, it was under Blair) then the classes mostly moved out to the community.

So for example she had a Tuesday morning patchwork class from 2005 which is still meeting now - they turned it into a group where you pay subs to join which covers the hall hire and her time.

The problem with this model is that people who want to learn a new skill (and sewing is useful) is that the groups/classes are very hard to find. Because each teacher either went off on their own and is now doing a load of classes all over the place at random village halls/churches it's hard for new people to find out what's on.

Equally, from the teacher's point of view, it's hard to find new people to join. Unless you have a permanent base and are doing it more or less full-time then it's just not cost effective to advertise.

So it's all word of mouth.

But should I as a taxpayer be funding something for someone just because it’s fun?
Surely Local Authorities are there to provide essential services, not to subsidise me doing art or pottery or a dance class.

Agree with PP it's something I'd be happy to pay for and wouldn't have expected for free but I can see how it's harder without some central funding.

I've come to the conclusion that if you want the sort of life with these sorts of classes, a choice of meet ups and interesting volunteering opportunities you need to be prepared to live more urbanly. This model seems very patchy in rural or suburban areas.

I picked up a brochure in our local library in August I think.
They did have a lot going on but very ££
I wanted to do BSL but it was £450 . Don’t know what level it was to

Cuts in funding and allocation of funding towards employment skills, rather than leisure/enjoyment courses, are big factors, but there are other things. People are increasingly reluctant to go out in the evenings to do a class after a day at work- in the summer the days are long so people tend to want to make the most of lighter, warmer evenings by doing things outdoors and in the winter many people prefer not to go out, especially if they have to go by public transport such as buses (which in many areas - such as where I live - come to a halt by 9 pm), so getting there and back home would be difficult except by driving yourself (parking considerations?) or a lift. Another factor is that people often have a long/difficult commute to and from daytime jobs, so by the time they get home they have things to do indoors and/or are tired. When demand for courses drops, they're axed by the Authorities to save money. Simple.

These factors - and others - have all contributed to the demise of adult ed. including the rise in bloody useless paperwork that pisses off tutors and prospective students who are forced to complete it. I'd say look at online courses - Futurelearn do some free online courses. 70isaLimitNotaTarget is right - the cost of some courses is another factor, especially now.

Our local college still runs quite a few but often they end up not running because they just don't get sufficient numbers signing up. I've tried twice to sign up for an interior design evening course that's ended up being cancelled due to low numbers.

Absolutely right. I worked in the sector and Labour were in power when this all started, so the Tories are not solely to blame. It was B-liar - sorry, Blair - who changed the goal posts.

Well, maybe it depends on the, erm, demographic she's trying to reach but Facebook and Eventbrite are free (the latter up to a certain number of tickets). There's also Meetup but it's £22 a month - several providers could share and create groups. Nextdoor is also free to post on.

Before moving here I searched for and added myself to the FB + Nextdoor groups, lots of events posted there. They have a pinned document with activity providers as well.