Paying for Further Education

Public Sector

The vast majority of the general public (91%) agree that they would be willing to pay something towards their own learning as an adult, and that taking an FE course is a good way to spend their money (75%).

 

Ipsos recently conducted a telephone survey investigating the general public's views of Further Education (FE) on behalf of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). The vast majority of the general public (91%) agree that they would be willing to pay something towards their own learning as an adult, and that taking an FE course is a good way to spend their money (75%). Furthermore, nine in 10 people (88%) agree that learning is personally important to them.

Three in five people also believe that the individual taking an FE course should pay something towards it, regardless of the type of course (60%).

Just over one in three people (37%) believe that FE courses are already solely funded by the individual undertaking them, while one in four (25%) would expect to have to pay the whole amount for undertaking a vocational course. When asked how much they would be willing to pay for a vocational course, 48% said 163200 or more.

Just over half of people (53%) think the individual should pay the entire amount for attending a leisure related course, while 59% would be willing to pay 163100 or more to do this.

The research also found that only two in five people (41%) are currently aware that the government already contributes financially to publicly supported adult learning courses.

Technical details

Ipsos interviewed 2,002 adults aged 19+ in England by telephone between 13-25 March 2007. Results were weighted by gender, age and Government Office Region.

Topline Results

Q1 How important or unimportant is learning to you personally?

  %
Very important 67
Fairly important 21
Neither important nor unimportant 3
Fairly unimportant 4
Very unimportant 5
Don't know -

Q2 Thinking about any course that you might undertake at a further education college or another adult learning centre ...Who do you think should pay for these courses?

  %
The government only 24
The individual who undertakes them 22
The individual and the government 21
The individual, the employer and the government 10
The individual and their employer 5
The employer only 5
The employer and the government 3
The taxpayer *
Other 5
None of these *
Don't know 4

Q3 Now thinking about leisure-related courses, and by that, I mean courses that you might undertake at a further education college or another adult learning centre which are not related to your job or a job you may have in the future ...Who do you think should pay for these leisure-related courses?

  %
The individual who undertakes them 67
The individual and the government 16
The government only 9
The individual, the employer and the government 1
The employer only 1
The individual and their employer 1
The employer and the government *
Other 2
None of these *
Don't know 3

Q4 If you were to undertake a vocational course at your local further education college or adult learning centre in the future, what proportion of the fees would you expect to pay?

  %
Less than 10% 12
Between 10 and 25% 9
Between 25 and 50% 12
50% 23
Between 50% and 75% 6
Over 75% 3
100% -- I would expect to have to pay all of the fees 25
It would vary according to the type of course / reason for taking it 1
None / Nothing / Should not have to pay 2
Other 1
Don't know 7

Q5 How much, in pounds, would you be willing to pay to undertake a vocational course at your local further education college or adult learning centre? Please assume that the course would take six months to complete, with 2 hours of tuition / teaching a week and would lead to a qualification at the end of it.

  %
Nothing 6
1-49 4
50-99 7
100-199 15
200-299 16
300-399 8
400-499 4
500-599 10
600-699 1
700-799 1
800-899 1
900-1000 8
Don't know 20

Q6 If you were to undertake a leisure-related, non-vocational course at your local further education college or adult learning centre in the future, how much do you think you should pay?

  %
Less than 10% 4
Between 10 and 25% 6
Between 25 and 50% 5
50% 13
Between 50% and 75% 7
Over 75% 5
100% -- I would expect to have to pay all of the fees 53
It would vary according to the type of course / reason for taking it *
Other 1
Nothing / Should not have to pay *
Don't know 6

Q7 How much, in pounds, would you be willing to pay to undertake a leisure-related course at your local further education college or adult learning centre? Please assume that the course would take three months to complete, with 2 hours of tuition / teaching a week and would lead to accreditation at the end of it.

  %
Nothing 3
1-49 8
50-99 15
100-199 24
200-299 16
300-399 7
400-499 2
500-599 5
600-699 1
700-799 1
800-899 *
900-1000 2
Don't know 15

Q8 How strongly do you agree with the following statements?a). I think that taking a course at a further education college or an adult learner centre is a good way for me to spend my money. b). I am willing to pay something towards the learning that I do as an adult.

  a b
  % %
Strongly agree 34 51
Tend to agree 41 40
Neither agree nor disagree 9 2
Tend to disagree 9 3
Strongly disagree 6 3
Don't know 1 *

Q9 Before a publicly supported adult learning course is offered to any member of the general public, regardless of their income, a certain amount is already paid for by the government. Were you aware of this?

  %
Yes 41
No 58
Don't know 1

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