Learning and Skills Sector
The Learning and Skills Sector is where adults undertake learning of all kinds except for universities. The sector includes Further Education (FE) colleges, Work Based Learning (WBL) providers and learning based in the community (Adult & Community Learning - ACL). All these are covered below with plenty of links, advice and contacts.
What college?
Further Education Colleges are to be found in every town and city. They run a broad mix of courses from entry level (for adults with few or no qualifications) through to BTECs and City & Guilds vocational qualifications and Foundation Degrees. Increasingly they are flexible id the delivery nif courses and qualifications and frequently look to provide courses in partnership with employers - sometimes on employer's premises.
College finder
If you are looking for further education colleges then there are a number of useful resources, including the London colleges website and the UK colleges list by Peter Burden, although this contains both universities as well as FE colleges.
There are other options listed below for members who want to continue their studies and education but are still looking for ideas and inspiration.
The Adult Education College Network consisits of five residential colleges that focus on returning adult learners who want to complete or begin a course of study. They frequently have partnerships with universities.
The Workers Education Association (WEA) is a very well-established network of community education providers and they also support trade union education in some parts of the country. They are affilliated to the International Federation of WEAs (IFWEA).