Adult Education (Hansard, 17 July 1991)

§ Mr. Rowlands
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what percentage of his budget is allocated to non-vocational adult education.

§ Mr. Eggar
Allowance is made within annual local authority finance settlements for the further education of adults. It is for individual local education authorities and the institutions they maintain to determine the pattern of spending in each area within the resources available to them.

§ Mr. Rowlands
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what percentage of the population of the United Kingdom participated in non-vocational adult education.

§ Mr. Eggar
The information requested is not available centrally, because the available enrolment data do not distinguish between vocational and non-vocational study. Enrolments at adult education centres in the United Kingdom numbered 1.6 million in 1988–89. In addition there were nearly 600 thousand enrolments on courses run by university extra-mural departments, the Workers Educational Association and other bodies. There were also over 600,000 enrolments on non-examinable courses without a specified qualification in further education colleges in England alone. All of these enrolment statistics will cover both vocational and non-vocational study.