Vince Cable

Vincent Cable MP has written to Ruth Kelly MP, the Secretary of State for Education, protesting at the way lack of forward planning of adult education funding has caused last minute cancellations of fully subscribed and popular courses at RACC.

In June, Vincent Cable secured a debate in Parliament over the financial squeeze in adult education and warned then that the RACC and other popular colleges faced cuts and higher fees because of a switch of government funding from adult to 16-18 education and from vocational (accredited) courses to non-vocational courses.

Vincent Cable said: "What is happening at the College is utterly baffling to local residents for whom it has long been seen as a very popular and successful institution. Even if economies have to be made, it is utterly incompetent of the Department of Education and the relevant quango - the Learning and Skills Council - not to prepare in advance. And the underlying philosophy of cutting everything which isn't 'useful', as defined by Whitehall, is centralist and utterly philistine. It is becoming clear that the removal of adult colleges from local councils, by the last Conservative Government, to be placed, instead, under remote quangos is forcing onto adult education a 'one size fits all' model completely unrelated to residents' priorities."