Host: Good afternoon. Welcome to Live to Leam. People today often want to continue learning through their lives, but what
are their choices? First, let’s talk to Aileen Murphy, head of Haresfield Adult College.
Local
College: Good afternoon. Well, at
Haresfield College, we organise classes in local schools and in our centre. The classes are usually in the evening, but we do have some day classes. Most of our classes are once a week, for about three hours.
H: What can you study at your college?
LC: Well, we have classes in
academic subjects, such as History. We offer five foreign languages and we also offer courses in vocational subjects like Computing.
H: How much do the courses cost?
LC: An average course costs about?100 for an academic year.
H: Thank you, Aileen. Now we
have Graham Knight, from the Open University.
OU: Well, the Open University is a distance-learning university
– that is, you study at home. There are a few classes during the year, and there are often summer schools. Our students have to study for about 12 hours a week.
H: Thank you, Graham. Oh, what about cost?
OU: Most of our courses are about?500 a year, at the moment.
H: Thanks. Now, Beth Anderson works for a professional training company, MicroMatters Ltd.
MM: Right. We offer training courses in computer skills for people who are actually working with computers.
H: Do you offer courses to people who aren’t working?
MM: Oh, yes. Most of our courses last two or three days, for people in work, but we also have week-long courses and evening courses.
H: And the cost?
MM: A week’s course costs about?900. Of course, we provide everything – the trainers, the training room, the computers
– the trainees don’t have to pay for any extras, so we aren’t cheap.
H: Thank you. Now, finally, James Beecham, to tell us about the University of the Third Age.
U3A: Good afternoon. The University of the Third Age is for retired people, so it is mostly older people. We have groups across the country, and each group organises its own courses. Usually, the group uses a hall in its town, or a local school, and lecturers come to speak to the group. We try to make our type of learning very cheap. Members have to pay?2.50 to join, and then a small part of
the costs – so it is very cheap.
H: Yes, I see. And what kind of courses or subjects do you offer?
U3A: Well, the speakers talk about their special subjects or their interests, so we have a lot of different topics, but it’s not usually very academic.
H: Right. Thank you, everyone, for coming. Now, let’s move on to…
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