EDUCAT ION
“Adult education will make this country prosper, as well as individuals and their families”
No wonder the IER report by Dr Hughes, published in 2016, called for more joined-up strategic thinking so that disadvantaged adults could carry on learning – and take their places in the workplace. There’s still a long way to go,” she says. “The numbers are falling in terms of adults going on to continue in education. That poses a serious threat to not just economic prosperity, but to actual adult prosperity in day-to-day lives.” It’s all so different from the can-do approach of 100 years ago when the 1919 Report on Adult Education was published. This argued that adult education wasn’t a luxury, but a national essential. If citizens were better educated, they’d also be better equipped to benefit society as a whole. Universities were to play a big role in adult education, actively recruiting older students and being prepared to spend big money on establishing new departments to look after them. That spirit should be rekindled today, thinks Dr Hughes. “We need to focus nationally on adult education,” she says. “It will make this country prosper, and individuals and their families prosper.” In spite of all the obstacles, adult learning institutions in our area are making strenuous efforts to ensure that courses are inclusive and accessible – and that those who would struggle to pay for their courses don’t miss out. “We’ve faced many challenges with the changing economic environment and funding cuts, but we’re still fighting fit,” says Zoe Sweet, Adult Learn and Train officer at Cambridge Academic Partnership, where – among the impressive range of courses offered at venues across our city – students may qualify for full funding to study English and Maths up to GCSE level. So, who is signing up for courses? It’s a varied lot of people, with an equally wide range of motivations, interests, goals and ages. At Hills Road College, half last year were aged between 20 and 39, something that’s “perhaps reflective of available income and fewer responsibilities”, says the college spokesperson. It’s a similarly varied picture when it comes to other providers in our area.
Warwick, Institute for Employment Research (IER), and author of an influential report, Adult Education: Too important to be left to chance . As the French have presumably discovered, it’s not just adult learners who lose out from reduced access to education and training in later life, but society as a whole. Get the quality and accessibility right, and everyone benefits. That means – among other things – making the organisations that offer adult education accountable, and ensuring the education that’s on offer really cuts it when it comes to preparing people for a world where flexibility and multiple careers are fast becoming the norm. While local providers are doing their bit – Cambridgeshire skills courses are available to help locals gain the essential skills and qualifications that will get them back into employment or progress in their career – those days may be some way off. Instead of government-funded training (and paid leave for employees while they’re doing it, as in France), UK workers instead have the longest working week in Europe, according to the Trades Union Congress. It’s not hard to understand why, after a hard day’s slog in the workplace, people feel like going home and putting their feet up rather than going back to school. The irony is that people who stand to benefit most from additional training and education – those with fewer skills and qualifications – are the ones least likely to access it, according to a recent Office of National Statistics analysis. Some people cited a lack of confidence as a barrier to learning or training. Others just didn’t have enough time.
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