Further education now…

The OU do courses.

That should be *does courses*😊

Look at the website of your local college. They will do all sorts of courses that won’t require prior qualifications. Alternatively , I’m sure your local council will run Adult Education classes. As another person said the OU usually doesn’t require entry qualifications. Expensive though.

Yes, loads.

I did A level Biology and Geography, upholstery, cookery and computing in evening classes at FE college.

My daughter wanted to do an OU course but it cost thousands. I don’t actually want to do anything myself, I just wondered if young people still had cheap opportunities to educate themselves after leaving school. It isn’t something I’ve thought about for years.

I did A levels at college in the evenings after work once I’d left school because I wanted to. The very traditional grammar school had removed my confidence, constantly told I wasn’t quite good enough and to work harder to get 100% marks. It was best for me not to stay on. I seem to recall no charge. Maybe my age. Later it was two diplomas, a degree and a Masters - all funded by us and costing a fortune although leading to an enjoyable and well paid professional career.

Our local college runs low and no cost interest courses for adults and the OU do now offer free stuff via OpenLearn. I’m sure there will be more out there. Definitely worth some research for anyone wanting to engage with learning.

That’s good to know. The local school where I used to do evening classes now just seems to do exercise classes, classes about hygiene etc.

There are hardly any evening classes now.

Gran22boys

There are hardly any evening classes now.

Agreed. FE is struggling, and is not remotely what it was. I grew up near to a 'technical college' which would now be called an FE college if not for the housing estate that's been built on the site where it used to be.

People could go in the evenings to study all sorts of subjects, and get qualifications they missed out on in school. There were secretarial courses, engineering ones, basic education, O and A levels and more. My mum's neighbour had something like 40 O levels in all manner of different subjects. He was an accountant, so unlikely to need any of them, but the classes were his social life (he was odd).

I taught in an FE college while studying to work in a university, and that range of courses was still available, as well as HEFC course (foundation courses to allow people with no A levels to get onto degree courses). I taught on those, as well as teaching people who had failed O levels, people coming out of the armed forces, women returning to learning after bringing up children and more. There were courses in dressmaking, stick dressing (no, I don't know either), conversational languages and all sorts of other things. These days, FE focusses exclusively on very basic courses to get people into entry level jobs.

I left when I got a job in a university, and I missed the miscellaneous nature of FE life a lot. I'm pleased I left when I did though, as funding declined rapidly, and FE has become the Cinderella of education. This is, IMO, wrong, as the FE constituency embraces a huge number of people who genuinely benefit from it. Wages are terrible, and that should be reversed. Skills to deal with the diverse range of students should be recognised for what they are, I think.

Times are changing. People need to adapt to new ways of working. Schools don't always serve everyone, and those who leave with few (or no) qualifications should not be written off - many of them can go on to far better things if they get a chance.

People need to change direction sometimes. Those who trained as typists or secretaries before having children need to upskill to be able to deal with IT and so on (and I know that is a dated example, but I hope it makes the point).

Also, people need to be able to add to their education by learning to speak French, or make a skirt, or cook Italian style. Classes are good ways to meet others if you are new to an area, or find friend with similar interests - even met a new partner.

FE should, IMO, be at the top of the list for investment, and I hope Andy Burnham understands what has been lost by letting it slide. Not only retraining opportunities for NEETS, but also enrichment for people who may be lonely, looking for a change in direction or for anyone who values education for its own sake.

There are lots of part time vocational courses, from GCSEs, A levels, BTEC to mechanics and hairdressing available at the FE college near me, but there are no non vocational classes at all. I’d have to go to a city for those, and my nearest is 40 miles away. It is a shame, as I’ve learned a lot over the years, I now do them online, but it’s not the same.

Agreed, Casdon, although my local one doesn't offer much above basic level, and non-vocational classes are dispersed to places that non-drivers will struggle to access.

The old-style 'tech colleges' are a huge loss to communities, and I hope they come back.

I live in Canada, not the UK, so things may be a little different here, but one thing the college* where I teach is doing is creating microcredentials. These are short, inexpensive courses that can result in an individual earning a digital badge. Mostly these would be sort of continuing education type programs (i.e. for people who are already working and just want to boost their expertise), but one thing they are looking to do is to create "stacked" microcredentials, which is a situation where someone would take multiple microcredentials and once they had completed them, they would receive credit for completing a certificate or diploma program.

There are also massive open online courses, or MOOCs. These are short courses that are open to people all across the world. Often they can be completed asynchronously (meaning that you can access the content at any time; you're not required to attend, say, a webinar at a specific time). Lots of times MOOCs are free, or at least you can audit them for free, meaning you can access the content but you can't submit assignments. If you want, though, you may be able to obtain a completion certificate for a fee.

*A college, in a Canadian context, usually means an institution that offers certificate programs that are one year or less, diploma programs that are two years, and possibly applied degree programs that are three years. A college may pursue some research, often in the areas of applied research (i.e. finding practical solutions to real-world problems) or teaching and learning, but does not have the same academic research mandate that a university does.