The importance of adult education centres for wellbeing

Drastic cuts to liberal adult education have been planned in the government negotiations, and there is now a lot of discussion about the future of adult education centres. Read below an article by Anne Leinonen, Principal of Helsingin aikuisopisto, on the importance of adult education centres for wellbeing.

The latest news about the plans to cut government funding for liberal adult education is worrying for liberal adult education providers such as adult education centres. Government funding covers a large part of our activities, and our activities are also funded by the course fees paid by our customers. We receive a small grant from the City of Helsinki for activities other than our regular operations. When government funding is reduced, the impact is significant.

In outdated perceptions, adult education centres are mainly places where people toss beanbags in exercise classes or dabble in a hobby. However, adult education centres have been, and still are, carrying out their basic task of making liberal adult education widely available to all citizens regardless of age, gender or level of education. Much of the training is, of course, hobby-based and supports lifelong learning and wellbeing, but the courses also help people maintain their ability to work and keep their professional skills up to date. In addition to people’s physical and mental wellbeing, adult education centres support social wellbeing by enabling new relationships and even friendships, which is especially important today.

We know that physical activity and learning new things matter, for example, in preventing memory disorders. The human brain needs work, in other words learning new things, which studying languages or doing crafts offers when you have to puzzle over how words are inflected, what new words mean or how to work out the areas of a knitting pattern. Adult education centres offer courses and activities that have significant effects on brain health.

Another issue that is significant for public health and even productivity is physical inactivity, which is much discussed today. People need exercise and movement to stay healthy in both body and mind. Adult education centres provide tools to combat inactivity and thus bring significant benefits to society. People who are well cope better at work, stay healthier and remain active in every way outside working life too. As a result, they also place less strain on social and health services.

Adult education centres lower the threshold for studying by offering Open University courses in cooperation with universities. They also prepare people of all ages for further studies, for example through competence-based credit courses.

You can read more about the importance of liberal adult education and adult education centres in Jyri Manninen’s article “Vapaasta sivistystyöstä ei saa leikata mutu-pohjalta” (Liberal adult education must not be cut on gut feeling), linked below. The article is in Finnish.