Bradford College has a long and distinguished tradition of providing adult learning courses locally. Many are based in community centres and village halls where it is easy for local people, especially older residents, to take part in activities that help them to continue to learn new skills which often enhance their personal and family lives.
So it is bitterly disappointing to learn that many of these courses, such as cookery, cake decoration, photography, piano playing, pottery and the like, are to be lost because of changes in Government policy on adult-education funding.
In simple terms, the Government wants all subsidised adult education to be based on vocational needs to help to fill the so-called skills gap that employers insist is damaging this country's ability to compete with the world's best economies.
The decision will be a bitter blow particularly to many older folk whose social life is often built around learning new skills in a local environment. It could also spell the death knell for many community venues which rely on these courses to keep them in business.
The Government says people who want these courses can have them if they're prepared to pay an unsubsidised £4 an hour. Yet many who will be affected simply can't afford such fees.
Surely there is some muddled thinking here. If employers want colleges to provide courses purely for their benefit by supplying a workforce trained specifically for their needs, they should be willing to pay for it. Then perhaps they could also get some kudos from being seen, by extension, to subsidise the kind of leisure-based courses that are such an important part of community life.
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