Adult education and New Labour

In an article on the Spiked website, Neil Davenport looks at the depressing philosophy behind the government's insistence that the further education sector should concentrate on the needs of industry:

There is more going on here than crude bean counting - the UK economy can easily afford to provide evening classes for art and Spanish and beyond. What New Labour seems to find uncomfortable is autonomous individuals learning for learning's sake, rather than as a means to an end. The notion of autonomous individuals seeking self-improvement doesn't fit with today's levelling-down mentality. New Labour might use workerist language to justify its reforms, but historically it was Workers' Educational Associations and Trades Unions that pioneered adult learning centres. They were designed, not for skills retraining, but to provide an opportunity to learn something away from the narrow confines of work.