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To: Nick Boles, Business and Education Minister
Invest in Adult Education
Stop the cuts to the adult skills budget and invest more in skills.
Why is this important?
Cuts to the adult skills budget will mean that one million adults will have no access to learning and skills. The learning and skills system includes more than schools and universities. In the next decade there will be 13.5 million job vacancies and only 7 million young people entering the job market. The best way to meet the shortfall is to train people of working age. Skills shortages require greater investment, not cuts.
Politicians are concerned about middle class parents and opportunities for their children to access university or apprenticeships and are unconcerned about the 5 million hard-working people on low pay or the unemployed because they have no voice and are less likely to vote.
Adult Education caters for the learning needs of a wide range of people, including many from vulnerable or disadvantaged groups. At a time when 730,000 16-24 year-olds are unemployed and 15% of 16-64 year-olds have no qualifications at all, the continuing programme of cuts is a national scandal.
Here are some typical experiences of people who have benefited from adult education -
“When I left school, there were no jobs. Luckily college gave me a course. I did some English and maths and now I’m doing great on my tiling course.”
“I came here from Afghanistan when I was 15. It was hard at first but I’m on track now at college, studying BTEC science – I really want to do a degree in pharmacy.”
I had to leave education early when I got pregnant. Health and social care at college is my path to a career in social work and a better life for me and my kids”
“I was an engineer in Colombia. I’m now working as a cleaner and studying plumbing and English at college in the evening. I hope to get a good job after my course.”
“I retired last year and was at a real loss. I popped into my local college and I’m now taking photography and still-life. I’m meeting new people and learning new skills.”
Investment in adult education not only provides a route out of unemployment and an escape from low-paid jobs, it also offers hope and dignity and can unleash talent, ambition and energy which will benefit society as a whole.
