Renewed Push for Adult Learning
Thu 26th Nov 2009
Pubs, museums and churches could be used for adult education classes in a £20m government plan to promote informal learning in England.
The government's White Paper on adult education proposes that more than 7,000 rooms in public buildings and private firms could provide space for lessons.
Skills Secretary John Denham says he wants to "raise the profile and take-up of learning wherever it happens".
There have been complaints that adult learning has been cut in recent years.
The government's adult learning plan, the Learning Revolution, is aimed at supporting learning for pleasure and for "personal development".
Pubs and museums
It wants to allow individuals and groups to have places to meet and learn together - whether they are shops, galleries, workplaces or pubs.
Among the 65 organisations supporting the campaign are the National Trust, the British Library, the Church of England, the Women's Institute, Microsoft and private health company Bupa.
"Over the past few years there has been a quiet learning revolution, but the government wants to ignite this, raising the profile and take-up of learning wherever it happens," says Mr Denham.
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education welcomed the announcement as "a bright light at the end of the tunnel for adult learning".
"It is no mean achievement to find new money on this scale at a time when there have never been more pressures on public funding," said chief executive Alan Tuckett.
The government's plan comes against a background in which there have been protests that adult education is being cut - as the emphasis has been shifted to improving the work skills of young people.