Awarding Achievement

Written by Vincent Cable and published in Online Exclusive on Fri 25th Feb 2005

An award ceremony with a difference. This week I was asked to present certificates of achievement at the Adult College.

Many of those recognised had shown extraordinary courage and stamina in overcoming illness or disability. One young man with a history of mental illness and special educational needs spends five hours travelling to and from a language class in Richmond; he has never missed a session in two years. Another young man with severe motor impairment and language problems has learnt demanding computer skills and now markets his services. Another, with cerebral palsy, has acquired the skills to run a business. A young woman with serious visual impairment has passed an advanced class in anatomy and another who struggled seriously with dyslexia has mastered the art of floristry and competes nationally.

Barriers are not just physical. A traveller on a local site has overcome illiteracy to read to her grandchildren. A single mother with no financial support has managed to complete a degree, bring up her daughter and make time to help others with voluntary, charitable work.

Running through all these stories is a single theme; that no-one should be excluded from learning. There are access barriers - disability, illness, poverty, age, young children and caring responsibilities - but they are challenges to overcome.

Adult education is, for many, the key. I have always believed in adult education since it rescued my parents who left school at 15 to work in factories. My father progressed through vocational training to become a college lecturer. My mother overcame depression and cancer in middle age, in no small part due to the motivation of adult learning in art and philosophy.

All of this is under threat. The government's education agenda is almost exclusively about schools or about 'useful' job related skills. Adult education is being squeezed and within it those non-vocational courses which give immense pleasure to the learners but don't impact on the labour market. Many local people have become frustrated by the cut backs in their courses - needlework, gym, WEA classes - as part of this squeeze. Mindless philistinism of this kind needs to be fought; otherwise doors will close on some of the remarkable people whose lives are given meaning by adult learning.