The caravan campus

Further education colleges have found a new niche in the market ? courses for older learners. Neil Merrick reports

Graphic designer Susan Harrison spent last Saturday morning learning how to caravan. She was among a dozen people who attended a three-hour course at South Trafford College, Manchester, run by Les Morton, who normally spends his week teaching business studies.

It was Morton's idea to offer the caravanning course as part of South Trafford's weekend college. Earlier this year he led a class on buying a house in France, and he plans to run a half-day course on fly fishing soon.

Harrison, who is planning to buy a caravan with her boyfriend Michael and travel around Europe, drove 38 miles from Preston to attend the caravanning class, which cost £12.50. She picked up some tips about speed limits in other countries, the best sites to visit, and local regulations. "It's brilliant value, isn't it?" she says.

The nature of her job means that Harrison cannot get to traditional evening classes – even closer to her home. "Sometimes it's 7pm when I get in at night and most courses have already started. The weekend is a super time to learn and, anyway, it's more of a social thing."

Morton focused on practical issues such as putting up awnings but did not to get too bogged down on things like weights. "It was designed to be a bit of fun," he says. "People nowadays have got an awful lot more leisure time. They reach mid-life and start wondering what on earth they are going to do."

With the latest census figures showing people living far longer and 21 per cent of the population aged 60 or over, further education colleges are increasingly gearing their courses to older learners. But they are aware that many do not want traditional assessment-based learning.

Sarah Roiditis, South Trafford's events officer, says it is providing learning that is linked to people's lifestyles. "They can turn up and learn a new hobby," she says. "We approach it from the perspective of lifelong learning, but people can dip in and out."

The idea of giving people a brief taste of learning began last year with the Learning and Skills Council's "bite-size" events. These were offered free of charge in colleges and other venues, including pubs and community centres, throughout the country.

A similar bite-size programme was held this summer – and now colleges are offering even more subjects that people can get their teeth into. "We have had colleges contact us directly and ask if they can continue with them," says Clare Charlesworth, the LSC's bite-size campaign manager.

Although many colleges use the word "course" to describe half or one-day events such as those at South Trafford, the LSC is trying to get away from such terminology and, this summer, adopted the term "intro". "It indicates that they are short," says Charlesworth. "The traditional view of education is that it involves courses and qualifications. Before you get to that stage, there is this opportunity for learning with a lower-level of commitment."

One of the features of "lifestyle" learning is the rich and varied range of subjects covered, some with fascinating titles. As part of the bite-size programme, Jackie Reid ran two events called "dancing with dogs" where pet owners could learn how to take their animals through the sort of moves that, with practice, could take them to Crufts.

The events, held in Cumbria, proved so popular that Reid is now running classes every Tuesday night for 10 weeks. "The people who come along may never compete," she says. "They just enjoy doing different things with their dogs. It stops them, or their animal, from getting bored."

Many courses have animal themes. At Bournemouth and Poole College, people learn how to micro-chip their pets and even to get inside their minds through parrot or horse psychology. "We are aiming to encompass everybody in the community," says marketing co-ordinator Diana Crosswell.

Bellydancing and circus skills are available at New College, Nottingham, which organises classes in the community through NCN Direct, while "robot wars" can be studied at Oxford College. Weston College, which dropped its course for potential Father Christmases because of a lack of interest, still offers learners the opportunity to understand their dreams.

Alan Tuckett, director of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Learning, praises the LSC for providing colleges with a funding mechanism that allows such courses to be put on at low cost.

"They are tapping into an established tradition of short and imaginative courses that focus on the curiosities of learners. The trick is then to provide a bridge to types of learning," says Tuckett, who once taught an all-night history of rock music class.

Some people find out about the new leisure courses through Learndirect – the Government's telephone and online information service (0800 100900). Gareth Dent, head of advice services, says Learndirect takes the broadest possible definition of learning and is keen to publicise unusual short courses alongside familiar subjects such as languages and IT which make up the majority of the 560,000 courses on its database.

"It's easy to be dismissive about some of these courses but a lot of them are serving an important social function," says Dent. "Keeping your mind active in later years has positive benefits for people's physical and psychological health."

education@independent.co.uk