16 A tough year ahead for women at work

 As the social costs of the cuts to public spending emerge, it is clear that without a radical reassessment of government economic policy, the livelihoods of women across the country will be put at risk, says Nicola Smith

18 ‘From worthy margin to lively mainstream’

 The seventies and eighties saw the adult education movement renew and re- examine its commitment to opening up learning opportunities to ‘disadvantaged’ groups. In the third article in a series marking 90 years of NIACE support for adult learning, Paul Stanistreet looks at the Institute’s role in taking these ideas into the mainstream and the challenges it faced in defending them

25 Firms still training despite recession

 The recession was expected to deter UK firms from training their staff, but rather than prompting employers to slash training, the downturn has forced companies to concentrate on ‘must-have’ skills and to offer more in-house training to save money. Alan Felstead, Francis Green and Nick Jewson report

28 We need to rethink what it means to be a student

 Economic and social prosperity in the knowledge age rest not only on adults learning throughout their lives, much of the time in higher education, but also on universities’ willingness to think radically about the changing needs of their students. Adult access to part-time and flexible study is simply non-negotiable, argues Christine King

30 And now for something completely different

 Terry Jones is best known for his work on Monty Python. But he has written books on medieval history as well as a series of children’s stories. Now he has turned his hand to writing a Quick Read, one of the short, fast-paced books for people who are out of the habit of reading. It’s a work that is close to his heart, discovers Ed Melia