Adult education funding cuts hit home for Kiwis

BY MICHELLE COOKE

Andrea Hawes is one of more than 200,000 New Zealanders who will feel the impact of the Adult Community Education funding cuts.

The Kohimarama resident has done classes in Thai cooking, mosaics and most recently MYOB, an accounting software programme.

Outraged at the government's decision to dramatically reduce funding, Mrs Hawes signed a petition against it - which was submitted to the government along with 50,000 other signatures.

"It's such a shame. Night classes offer an easy way to get educated. Cutting the funding is just so bad, so many people will miss out."

Mrs Hawes, who runs a business from home selling coffee beans and faux fur rugs and throws, says the MYOB class helped her tremendously.

She had been using the software for four years but the experienced tutors taught her how to use it to its full potential.

"When you're aware of costs these courses can make a big difference. It's another way to help small businesses stay in business."

Although she has done a different class at Selwyn College for the last four years, she says she might not do as many in the future because of the higher cost.

East and bays resident Raymond Brown has done the AutoCAD class twice, and studied Russian through Selwyn College Community Education.

He wanted a better understanding of the Russian language because his girlfriend is Russian and he studied AutoCAD, a design and drafting software tool, because he would like to be an architect.

"I need better qualifications but to understand the software I need to use, the best thing I could do was the night class," he says.

"I couldn't afford to go to university for three years."

- © Fairfax NZ News