John Summers, Christine Forward, Tony Coles and David Forward celebrategetting their Royal Yachting Association yacht master's certificatewith tutor Bill Flegg

EVERYTHING from law to lace making -- if you can learn it, Bexley'sadult education college will teach it.

And every age from 16 to over 60 was represented when the college heldits awards ceremony at its Sidcup centre.

Many of the courses achieved 100 per cent exam pass rate and in all ofthem the pass rate was above 50 per cent.

Bexley Council's education committee chairman Cllr Colin Tandy toldaward winners about the council's new Lifelong Learning Strategy.

This will attract new government cash for adult education and it islikely the adult education college will benefit.

More than 21 per cent of its enrolments are from people over the age of60, while at the other end of the scale, children from Birkbeck PrimarySchool, Sidcup, go to the college twice a week for pottery and computinglessons.

Next term parents will join the children working in the same classroomsto learn maths and computing.

Cllr Tandy said courses at the college allowed adults to catch up onqualifications they had missed out on at school and to take up new skills,either as hobbies or for new jobs and businesses.

The adult education college now records more than 16,000 enrolments ayear. Cllr Tandy told the award winners: "Multiply that nationally,and it is clear part time learning by adults is big business."

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