Adult education courses

Adult Education courses are necessary for retraining and finding new work.  They are also so important for people's mental health - to get people out and about to meet others and to exercise the brain.  It really is underestimated.

I take arty type courses for fun in my retirement. I love it but, where I live, the courses are part funded by the EU which makes them affordable on a pension. Not sure what will happen in future. I have been interested in learning my whole life and did an Open University degree when I was 50. Sadly, the cost of those are now prohibitive so I do art courses locally. They have given me a new interest and challenge different parts of my brain to when I was working. It would be very sad if cost restricted younger people from reaching their full potential and older people from enjoying a fulfilling retirement.

I would be interested in attending an adult ed course - how do you find them?  Searched on this site and found some Mayoral statements, budgets etc - but no sign of a course list, location, subjects?  Googled Adult ed in London and got a lot of colleges, none of which seem to be the subject of this survey?  How do you find out about available courses?

Support the idea and had not realised these were still available!!  But seems hard to find info.

It would be useful to offer some courses to equip people to become teachers/facilitators of adult education courses. This would help to increase the availability of courses as long as they continue to be adequately funded. I would support a policy to increase AEB funding each year.

I was very fortunate to have participated in a series of French Language and Culture courses, held at the Mary Ward Centre a few years ago. The quality of the teaching was excellent, and the learning environment created by the course tutors made it a pleasure to attend. The class size was relatively small, usually less than 12 attendees, so each participant received substantial support and feedback. The conversational elements of the course were tremendous fun, and I was able to refresh my language skills in ways that benefited me on holiday in francophone countries. Social and well-being factors are often as important as the desire to gain new qualifications for some people who choose to pursue adult education courses.

I agree with the comments that say too much focus on qualifications is a mistake. It certainly put me off the last time I tried in the mid '90s as I only wanted to take a course for personal pleasure but was told I had to sign up for the exam. Of course good qualifications should be available for those who want them, but leisure and health should also be considered as valid reasons for people to attend. I had some good experiences prior to my last one, so am cheered by the prospect that courses with only personal motivation for attending might be coming back.

I have taken adult education courses that offered no qualification and found them the best because if I missed a class for one reason or another, it was ok. Also, it attracted people who weren't just focussed on getting that stamp onthe piece of paper. They genuinely wanted to learn.

I have recently retired and have done a couple of courses recently for my own enjoyment rather than to acquire qualifications. I have done some local history courses involving weekly guided walks, and an art appreciation course involving visiting different galleries.I have really enjoyed getting out of the house to visit different areas, and also the opportunity to meet other people as well as increasing my own knowledge.

Many very good comments have already been made.  I would just support by saying that I think accessible, affordable adult education is very important.  People who sign up for adult courses are likely to be motivated and conscientious and I would think that the dropout rate is low.  Londoners are such a varied lot from many different backgrounds and income levels, so one would hope to find a good range of courses which are affordable.

I do believe that many Londoners' mental health - and even physical - would be much better if adult education courses were more accessible.  They need not necessarily be career based, though these are important, but could also provide enjoyment, social interaction, and finding other strings to one's bow.

Of course another crucial need is for free - or affordable - English, ESOL, especially with refugees in mind, who may not be able to pay.   These might include classes about Universal Credit, British culture, etc.

So far, my only engagement with Adult Education was that 39 years ago I taught a short course in graphic design and production for community work, at Thamesmead. More recently, I helped a young Ghanaian lady by preparing Twi-language training materials for her teaching at the City Lit.

Currently, I am interested in what Adult Education might be able to offer to older people who want to develop skills in using computers and other digital devices. I am (informally) compiling a resource document to feed into a GLA discussion around this, and there is a big hole in what I know about training opportunities related to this.

I was an AE tutor in ESOL before I retired and noticed how the emphasis on qualifications though very important, was excluding other very important motivations for taking an AE course.

These are helping people keep happy healthy & active thereby improving mental and physical health & saving the state a lot of money.  Most of the courses which did not lead directly to qualifcations and jobs were phased out. I do believe that some of the £350 million should be spent on helping voluntary organisations and clubs to provide courses. e.g. I now do yoga for the elderly at Yoga in Daily Life in Kilburn.  They provide it free as the teacher does it voluntarily but this may not continue. Organisations like this need to be fostered and encouraged so that they can provide courses for people who could not otherwise afford to pay

And English and Basic literacy should be free as they were in the past. Newcomers to the country should not be charged as they have so many difficulties.

I would like to see more courses offered locally. I don't want to travel into Central London.

I strongly support what Amandapl says. Education should not be just about training for a job. It should include learning about things which you enjoy and take an interest in. And at a price that the average person can easily afford - not a big investment that’s only justified because you expect to get a financial return from it.

Many years ago I took a year-long wine appreciation course under ILEA. Each week the instructor, an old hand from the wine trade, brought in some bottles of wine which the class, about dozen to twenty people, shared the cost of. Over the year he taught us a great deal, about the grapes, the regions, the history, and most importantly the technical vocabulary for the various odours and tastes, which you can’t learn just by drinking a lot of wine - you have to be prompted by someone who is tasting the wine at the same time and tells you what to look for. He was very professional about it, and had us spitting not drinking - you can’t taste properly if you get tight.

I think that if you could find a course as good as that today it would be prohibitively expensive and aimed at people wanting to make a career in wine. ILEA ran it because ordinary people wanted to learn about wine in their spare time.

Retired people prefer daytime classes, preferably local.  There is a real dearth of affordable foreign language courses in London.  I know a number of people who have reluctantly given up courses because of the high costs.

I would welcome opportunities which are local and accessible by public transport [no long evening journeys] and reasonably priced

It's important that adult learning is not just about qualifications and learning for a job. Adult learning always used to have a wider focus that helped people with isolation, mental and physical health, getting back into the habit of learning, providing a step onto other learning and providing a wider opportunity to learn something different.

It's very sad that it is so directed towards employment now and that courses are categorised as vocational or not. I did a gardening course several years ago and some people on it set up businesses, some improved their health, some met new people and some (like me) now help the environment by planting food and flowers for wildlife. But there are no longer any courses like that near me as it's not deemed 'vocational', so somehow has no value. I'd really like City Hall to take into account the wider benefits of learning when deciding what to fund.

I'd also like to see more of the money going to actual learning and less on employing administrators who generate mountains of paperwork for providers of education. I know that quality is important along with making sure that the money is spent properly, but City Hall seems to be employing a lot of additional people meaning that less money is available for spending on actual teaching.