The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Closures lead college to cut courses on offer
Student claims changes are no good for people who have to go to work
A campaigner has accused Perth College UHI of making a “token gesture” after it revealed it would be running a reduced timetable of classes in Crieff after closing down learning centres.
Perth College said it would be holding classes at Strathearn Artspace from September to November following the decision to close the learning centres in Crieff, Kinross and Blairgowrie.
However, advanced Spanish language student Elspeth McCole believes the new reduced timetable is “just to keep people quiet”.
She said: “It’s a bit of a cop-out at the minute. Is that just to keep people quiet?
“I was doing advanced Spanish but now they’ve only got Spanish for beginners and intermediates but they’re not continuing with the advanced classes so people will have to travel through to Perth which is just not possible if you’ve been working all day.
“My personal view is that this is just to pass us off and it’s absolutely no good for people like myself who have to work.
“As far as I can see they’re just making a token gesture.”
SNP MSP Roseanna Cunningham said: “While I am delighted that some courses are again going to be delivered in Crieff, it really does underline that there was no question of lack of demand being behind the decision to close the Learning Centre.
“All that Perth College have achieved with the manner in which they have handled this whole mess has been to cause confusion and uncertainty for lecturers and for existing and potential students, thereby undermining the viability of courses for the coming year.
“Nevertheless, I hope that the courses that are now being run in the Artspace will be a success and I look forward to the range of courses being expanded in the future.”
The new timetable of day classes will run for a 10-week period at Strathearn Artspace on Wednesday and Thursday covering floristry, Spanish and German.
Perth College said it hopes to run more classes in the future and will also announce replacement classes for Blairgowrie and Kinross next week.
A college spokesperson said: “Having reviewed all our community provision, we will be publishing our new programme next week with courses starting on September 16.
“The new programme has a mixture of community learning, leisure classes and accredited learning on a part-time basis and reflects many of the popular courses previously run in Perth and in the wider community.
“Courses include cake decoration, upholstery, digital photography, French, Spanish and jewellery making at venues in Kinross, Crieff, Blairgowrie and at our Perth campus on the Crieff Road.
“An ongoing review of our programme will aim to continually refresh our community offer in a sustainable way forward.”