Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of general further education colleges that offered evening and weekend course for adult learners and (b) how many adult students attended such courses in each of the last three years.

The government does not collect information on the number of general FE colleges that offer evening and weekend courses for adult learners or the number of adult students that attend those courses.

Evening and weekend courses play an important role in adult education; giving the flexibility needed to attract those learners who have weekday commitments. These courses are provided not only by Further Education (FE) colleges but also by other training and learning providers, including those who receive Community Learning funding as part of the Adult Education Budget.

However, a survey of adult and community learning commissioned last year showed that evening classes are run in 1,380 local centres. The survey results from 97 providers suggested that approximately a third of those providers use more than 40% of their budget for evening classes.

The government wants to explore new ways of making learning more accessible. On 31 October, we launched the £10 million Flexible Learning fund to support new and flexible ways of delivering adult education. The deadline for bids is 31 January and all successful pilots will be monitored to ensure they are engaging adults in learning.