John Denham's announcement was greeted with a palpable sense of relief today when he launched the national consultation on informal adult education, or learning which is not just geared to qualifications. The last two years have seen a drop of 1.4 million people in publicly funded adult education.
As one in the audience remarked: "After 10 years at last we've got a minister who is taking a real Labour view on this big issue."
The secretary for innovation universities and skills says the inquiry will go "far beyond existing institutions and providers" to hear from the public about the learning they want to do and how they would like it arranged.
It will look at the extent to which people are doing their own learning - using the internet, or going to libraries, museums and art galleries. One possibility is for vouchers to be given to groups of people who want to organise their own learning, to enable them to buy in a teacher.
The aim is not to destroy existing institutions that are working well, but to see how the state's limited resources can best be deployed where needed, which could be to facilitate people's search for learning as much as supporting institutions, Denham says.
The question is, will the government act on the findings?
