Learning a new skill can take up a large amount of time, effort and in some cases money.
Most commonly, people aged 18-21 take on either college or university courses to learn new skills before they enter the working world.
But what about adults who are wanting to learn a new skill outside of their desk jobs and day to day lives?
In recent years, evening classes may have ran into the ground with popularity, but Lincoln College are aiming to bring back classes for adult learners.
The college, located on Monks Road, offers adult evening classes in a variety of different subjects. From languages to beauty therapy, there seems to be something for everyone.
Nicola Barnes is the Community Coordinator at Lincoln College, who organises a large variety of classes for adults aged 19 and up.
“September and January are our busiest months by far. We do courses all year round and our language classes are the most popular,” says Nicola. “Those classes are 8 weeks long and we don’t tend to teach them during in the half terms or school holidays, so realistically if we start them in September the next one start until January because of the amount of weeks.”
The course lengths and prices vary from one day sessions to up to 8 week classes, depending on the type of course chosen.
As an example, an eight week language course at Lincoln College, costs about £40 a time and covers languages such as Italian, German, Spanish, Polish and French.
“I think they’re popular because they are short and low cost but give people a good and informative insight to the different subject areas,” says Nicola. “The most popular location is Lincoln College in the evenings and it probably helps that we offer free parking in the evening plus its a central location.”
Age doesn’t seem to stop adult learners either. The courses have attracted learners from ages 19 up to people in their 70’s and 80’s.
Alongside paid courses, the college has started to offer free sessions to employers to introduce skills into the workplace – something that is supported by the Personal Community Development Loan.
Their most popular session by far are their IT sessions – more specifically an introduction to spreadsheets. “We do go to employers to do this course for one day or they come here to do it – it’s very busy!”
For more information on adult evening classes in the area, visit: www.lincolncollege.ac.uk/courses/adult-learners