Whatever happened to Adult Education classes?

Now I know why Mrs P didn't talk to me after her birthday

No, Pompa, they are those green precious stones that cost a nabob's fortune.

Hermods ??? don't you stick them up your -

Seems like an ad for Hermods, and I'm unlikely to go to Sweden !

And they do a course on basic Swedish especially for you. Never know when it might come in handy.

If you view it in Google it will offer to translate, and does it perfectly.

I don't understand Swedish, ritajoshi222 ! So not a very useful link for most gransnetters. ?

AS many have said, it got to expensive for most of us. For people of our generation, the U3A is the best alternative.

Students in need of primary grades opt for basic adult education. Various courses are available in various subjects like English, Maths etc Learn more here :
www.hermods.se/utbildningar-och-tjanster/vuxenutbildning/

Yes Harold Wilson would not be pleased. OU was one of the great innovative projects of his time and has been far more successful than anyone dreamed. What a pity that access to gaining a degree in this way has been put out of reach of so many.

Costs a fortune now, sadly XX

And of course the OU was hit by withdrawal of funding by the dear leaders of our country. According to my U3A magazine participation of part timers in OU study has dropped by almost half since 2010.

I think the WEA is about 10 years too late in trying to protect publicly funded adult ed. It true that "you don't know what you've got till its gone" I guess. I remember Youth Clubs suffering a similar quiet death. Remember the days when every comprehensive school had its own youth club with several paid youth workers. But like the over 60s, facilities for teenagers were not considered a priority.
U3As are all independent charities and they as good as their members. At one time I was on the committee of one and used to get a bit hacked off with the majority of members who seemed to think that all this education and entertainment was something that we, the committee, should provide for them. Rather than thinking what they could do to to contribute. Grhmph. But tends to work out a lot cheaper than publicly funded courses of yore because members do the group leading/teaching/convening etc
I was rather impressed with Cambridge U3A brochure which as one might expect was a full of fascinating, but very academic offerings by... guess who.
Happy enough myself as my learning needs are being heavily subsidised by the Welsh Government

I also joined the U3A (university of the third age) they are all over the country and all the groups meet in during the day. They will have a group on anything that there is a demand for - from languages, meditation, patchwork, art, line dancing, short mat bowls, walking, , photography, whatever. There is an annual fee about £15-£20, a monthly meeting with a speaker, and groups that meet monthly or more often, where you pay a couple of pounds to cover the hall unless you meet in someone's home.

FutureLearn is a fantastic resource. There is a new course starting on 8 February about "Ageing". A must for everyone?

Talking about art classes. I used to belong to an art group there were at least 30 members I think, every so often we used to pay artists to spend a day showing us techniques, and perhaps complete a picture, it was excellent and a day of totally focusing on what we were doing forgetting everything else.

I really need to see if I can find something similar.

Lilygran I got that petition too as I used to attend a theatre studies course with the WEA.

I agree with you that the social contact and interaction that a course provides is very important for a lot of people. I have certainly made some really good friends from attending courses, and having other people's input on a subject is useful too.

In my area there used to be a wide choice of adult education classes but there are far fewer now. I was looking forward to doing some sort of art course - perhaps even an A level - but there is only one course on offer and it's not on a day I can do.

The best course I ever took was Upholstery. we had a very strict teacher and hammered at our chairs and the odd bits of furniture we'd brought to the class. It was a really enjoyable evening and you could see what the other students were working on. Such a class would not be possible today but I have reupholstered quite few chair seats and sofa cushions since then.

grammer seems to have gone so yours is the only one now devore.

Yes, Whitewave, if I had read every post I would have seen that and not gone in for repetition! Nice to know these things are available and out there.

I'm doing a course with Southampton University online and free. ,"Agincourt 1415" Oh! I see grammer has already said it!!

The WEA is running a campaign to protect Adult Education classes www.wea.org.uk. On-line courses are very useful but they don't provide human contact and they do require a level of confidence in the student.

I know doing an online course is not quite the same as gathering in a group and learning and debating together but this site may satisfy some. I was going to put this information on the Education section but this seems as good a place as any. I have known about this site for a while now but only got round to using it myself in the last week. Type into the search engine www.futurelearn.com and register to access it. It is a site full of online free courses run by various Universities but you don't have to be an Einstein to participate. Very much user friendly. I am currently doing the 2 week one on 'Agincourt', mainly because I saw the RSC version of Henry V at the cinema last Wednesday and wanted to renew my knowledge of it. You can buy a certificate to say you have completed the course but there is no pressure and you don't even have to complete the course if it turns out not to be to your liking. Dip in and see what you think.
BTW if you are not aware of the excellent RSC and National Theatre/Opera/Ballet cinema showings they really are worth looking up. In a lot of places though they are so popular some cinemas have had to set up a queueing system.

If you don't like the variety of interest groups your U3A provides, try to start one that you do like. We don't call our groups 'classes' or 'courses' because they are all member led. We share expertise on subjects as diverse as languages, d-i-y, gardening, cake decorating, writing, photography, bridge, crosswords, geology...and - you name it! VQ, there could well be a member who knows more than a bit about your car's engine. Why not ask?

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