These are uncertain times for English further education. With the sector facing a 25 per cent cut in public funding over four years, the challenges are immense, but there are opportunities too, as institutions prepare for the introduction of tuition fee loans for study above Level 3 for students aged 24 and over, and ministers stress their…

This author retired this summer after 23 years leading one of the country's most creative and enterprising adult learning services. She departs convinced that adult and community learning needs not only tenacity, passion, and imagination but also professional management and support if it is to thrive.

It isn't the first time City Lit Principal Peter Davies has had to weather a financial storm. This time, he says, it's different--the proposed cuts to funding for adult learning are likely to prove disastrous. Intelligence suggests City Lit might face cuts of 40% in adult funding and even closer to 100% if the Adult Safeguarded Learning budget is…

Generational conflict is back. After years of relative silence, and mutual ignorance, the young and old are once more at war. With youth unemployment high on the political agenda, the fortunes of the "jobless generation" are being contrasted with those of the "golden generation" of baby boomers, but is one generation really…

Government spending is declining, yet the need for jobs and training is higher than ever. The current supply of quality apprenticeships is clearly not sufficient to meet demand and that was highlighted this year when British Telecom received 24,000 applications for only 221 places on its apprenticeship programme. The main obstacle to increasing…

The UK coalition government has stated its ambition to create a "Big Society". This represents an attempt to alter the relationship between citizen and state, loosening the vertical ties that exist between government and the individual while strengthening the informal bonds of neighbourhoods and communities. This agenda runs through the…

Not so long ago, alongside the splendid edifice of full-time university education, there was a thriving array of university degree-level programmes, offered part-time in local settings, which was world-leading in its availability and in its ambitions. One could access it as part of a career-change need, a professional accreditation or for the…

The "Daily Telegraph" recently carried an attack on the Union Learning Fund (ULF) as part of its ongoing criticism of unions following the industrial action by cabin crew at British Airways. This included a quote from Conservative MP Francis Maude suggesting that the fund was a form of "money laundering." The article, which was…

All corners of the media are scrutinising David Cameron's "Big Society", from every conceivable angle. While the concept has caught the public's imagination, the greater challenge of fleshing out what the Big Society will actually offer and require of communities is unfinished business. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations…

The key message of NIACE's 2011 survey of adult participation in learning is that recession is bad for lifelong learning for anyone over the age of 25. The survey highlights the central importance of workplaces as sites of adult learning--and the challenges posed to a learning society when opportunities to learn reduce. It shows that the gap…

More than 500 people from across the country attended the Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning's February lobby of Parliament. They made sure their voices were heard, lobbying their MPs and ensuring politicians from all parties got the message that the loss of over a million adult learning places is unacceptable. This article describes the…

What do teachers, providers and policymakers need to do in order to support disabled learners to "think big and aim high"? That was the question put to delegates at NIACE's annual disability conference. Some clear themes emerged, with delegates raising concerns about funding, teacher training, partnership-working and employment for disabled…

In 2007, the Workers' Educational Association's (WEA) Yorkshire and Humber region was funded by the Academy for Community Leadership to deliver a programme of active citizenship learning in South Yorkshire. The programme was expected to: equip potential and existing community leaders with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to address…

It has been no easy feat getting an organisation the size of City Lit--with 30,000 students, 4,000 courses, and nearly 1,000 teachers--to achieve an overall Grade 1 at inspection. Throw into that mix the funding upheaval and the need to demonstrate repeatedly to new ministers the value of what the college does, and one will get some idea of the…

By the end of 2010 over 15 million euros will have been allocated in the UK through the Grundtvig adult learning programme. Over 900 organisations and thousands of staff, individuals and learners involved in adult education have benefitted. Grundtvig has helped to enhance the quality of learning provision; widen perspectives; increase motivation;…