Adult education numbers fell in years prior to recession

By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

Friday, September 03, 2010

THE recent spike in mature students attending college comes against a slight drop in the number of adults in formal education up to the beginning of the recession.

The number of mature students – aged 23 or over – seeking entry to college through the Central Applications Office rose by almost one-fifth this year to 14,700, and they make up most of the 7,280 places allocated before Leaving Certificate students got their results, 12% higher than in 2009.

But the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reports a slight decrease from 6% to 5% of people aged 25 or over who had taken part in formal education between early 2003 and autumn 2008. As part of the Quarterly National Household Survey, 17,500 adults were interviewed about their lifelong learning experiences in the previous year.

The 5% who had taken part in formal education compares to 6% just over five years earlier.

However, the data published yesterday was collected in the very early stages of the economic slump which has led to a major rise in adults seeking to improve their skills and job chances.

The age range used by the CSO also means that people aged between 23 and 25 who returned to education and are classed by third-level colleges as mature students were excluded.

More than one-third of adults in formal education had taken a course in social sciences, business and law, with health and welfare was the next most popular field, pursued by one-in-six adult learners. The vast majority cited a job-related reason as the main factor for studying, but fewer than half got support from their employers.

The results place Ireland on par with the average EU participation rate of 6% in formal education for adults aged 25 to 64, less than half the 15% rate in Britain but three times that in France.

One-in-five adults said they received non-formal education in the year to the end of September 2008.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, September 03, 2010