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Adults off the radar - or so it seems...

  • Writer: Paul Sceeny
    Paul Sceeny
  • Feb 19
  • 2 min read

Updated: Feb 21

I had an article published in FE News a few days ago, lambasting the British government for attempting to slice a further 2-3% off the Adult Skills Fund in England for 2025-26.


I was commenting particularly on the impact for ESOL provision, and lamenting how English language acquisition is one of the aspects of adult education that has been hit hardest by a decade and a half of budget freezes and cuts. ESOL enrolments in England dropped by more than a third during the 2010s, with real-terms funding slashed be more than 50% over the same period.

Adult learners on the radar?

Yet these latest cuts seem to reflect a broader sense that adult learners aren't really on the radar for the current British government. They are to an extent, in that there's endless rhetoric about 'skills' and the rollout of Skills England. Yet learning in community settings, family learning, learning for inclusion, learning for self-esteem or self-discovery is seen as at best as a 'nice to have' (and in the UK's current fiscal climate that means it's not a priority).


More than anything I'm saddened by this, but also frustrated as this is a classic case of 'pennywise equals pound-stupid'.


And whilst I'm an external observer to events in England these days, I am mindful of the spill-over effect in the north of Ireland - both in terms of the British government ultimately holding the purse-strings, but more subtly through this being one of the dominant narratives that civil servants and others are influenced by.


If only they would look south for inspiration, instead of east. There are aspects of adult and community learning in the 26 counties that could be critiqued, but there's no doubting the government's commitment to supporting it and (at least rhetorically) recognising its power to transform people and communities.




 

 
 
 

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