Petitions don’t make it to the front pages often, though it seems to help if they’re about a mildly racist old man who was supposedly violent because of some food. When they’re about adults still being given opportunities in education they tend to fall far down the list.

At the end of last month, the Government outlined their plans for adult further education. Excluding funding for apprenticeships, the budget for 2015/16 will be cut by 24 per cent. That’s 24 per cent of the funding for adults who want to gain a better education later in life. What's more, it's on top of a previous 35 per cent cut to the Adult Skills Budget, which has already made it harder for people to access higher adult education.

The University and College Union (UCU) has estimated that this cut could lead to a loss of 400,000 college students – and according to them, this is a conservative estimate. In a statement from the Association of Colleges, their Chief Executive went so far as to say “By 2020, if the next Government continues to cut at this rate, adult further education will be effectively a thing of the past. This will mean an end to courses which help people in their early 20s find a job and to GCSE and A Level-equivalent professional courses for those that missed out at school.”

In response, the UCU, supported by all the major teaching and students’ unions, has set up a petition calling “upon the government not to implement these cuts and to instead invest properly in lifelong learning opportunities for all.” But it seems this was a less interesting petition than one about making sure a millionaire kept his job.

The opportunity to learn, to better oneself through education, is surely a right for anyone no matter their age. What’s particularly scary is that such a drastic cut seems to be taking place under the radar. If it was cuts to secondary schooling there would have been an uproar, but for adults who weren’t able to get the education they feel they needed, to lose the opportunity now is quite fine.

In pictures: The smartest cities in the world Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: The smartest cities in the world In pictures: The smartest cities in the world Arlington County, Virginia, USA Appearing for the third time as a Top7 Intelligent Community, Arlington has used smart planning to leverage the benefits of its location near Washington, DC. Arlington looks to continue its growth into the future with its Telecom Master Plan, the innovative work being done at Virginia Tech and The Arlington Way, a formal structure of more than 40 citizen advisory groups and commissions, which influence decisions on everything from land use to technology, and intense collaboration among government, business and the nonprofit sector to spur innovation Getty In pictures: The smartest cities in the world Columbus, Ohio, USA On the Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year list for the third year in a row, Columbus has the highest metropolitan concentration of Fortune 1000 companies in the USA. Columbus aims to overcome its biggest challenge – a large, low-income population stranded by the decline of low-skilled factory employment – with programs increasing collaboration among government, education, business and institutions. Columbus is now one of a handful of US metros that turned a continuous and persistent period of brain drain into brain gain in 2007-2009. Employment growth in skilled manufacturing has exceeded 35% over the past decade. And in 2013, Columbus was named one of the top 10 cities in the US for new college grads Getty In pictures: The smartest cities in the world Ipswich, Queensland, Australia Ipswich is appearing on the Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year list for the first time. In 2011, Ipswich published a 20-year economic development plan designed to combat its challenges and prepare for the ones to come. When the Australian government’s National Broadband Network was announced in 2009, Ipswich partnered with local communities to create what they called the Western Corridor National Broadband Network and attract national investment. A Digital Hub project and Digital Enterprise program are equipping citizens and business with digital skills, while Ipswich begins a major redevelopment of its city center, where digital technologies will be used to attract tenants and to improve public safety. Green standards will make the center one of the most sustainable in Australia Creative Commons In pictures: The smartest cities in the world Mitchell, South Dakota, USA Making its first appearance as a Top7 Intelligent Community of the Year, the rural community of Mitchell has been shaped by declining demand for employment in agriculture. A strategic plan developed in the late 1980s, named Vision 2000, called for a community-wide emphasis on education, healthcare, infrastructure and recreation. It led to the merger of two hospitals, creating a unified healthcare system that became the city’s biggest employer, and the construction of new schools that partnered with the local university and recreation center to advance educational excellence. Telecommunications development has created another economy on top of Mitchell’s agricultural one, consisting of engineering, consulting and software companies that have made Mitchell into a regional hub for expertise and services. ICF said it demonstrates the hope that broadband and new ideas in planning offer to rural communities and towns Creative Commons In pictures: The smartest cities in the world New Taipei City, Taiwan New Taipei City is appearing for the second consecutive year as a Top7 Intelligent Community – a feat all the more impressive because the city was only formed in 2010 from the county surrounding Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei. Mayor Eric Chu, the founding mayor of the city and a national political figure, set out to transform a loose collection of suburban cities and rural land into a unified metropolis. Massive investment went into high-speed roads and rails to unite the doughnut-shaped city, while broadband advances coupled with a Knowledge-Bridge project has driven industry-university collaboration projects and provided talent and job matchmaking Getty In pictures: The smartest cities in the world Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro, a first time Top7 Intelligent Community of the Year, is a city as famous for its natural beauty and Carnival spirit as for its crime-plagued slums. But ambition, good luck and more innovative leadership have given the city a boost. Rio’s hosting of the 2014 World Cup, as well as winning the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, gave the city opportunities to revitalize itself, plan a range of future-centered activities, including a better transportation system and to deal with long-standing infrastructure problems. ICT programs such as The Knowledge Squares and The Rio Datamine have also helped Rio in it’s mission to create a future worthy of its nickname: Cidade Maravilhosa or the Marvelous City Getty In pictures: The smartest cities in the world Surrey, British Columbia, Canada Surrey, another first-time Top7 Intelligent Community, is a city in transition from a suburban past in the shadow of Vancouver to a sustainable urban future. To gain greater control over its destiny, Surrey has developed a diversification strategy calling for deepening the partnership between its institutions of higher learning and local business. Development is focused on an Innovation Boulevard project, where the city, universities and business are building clusters in health technology, clean tech and advanced manufacturing. Overseeing the project is the Mayor’s Health Technology Working Group, comprised of 50 representatives from universities, a health authority, nonprofits, business associations, government and developers Creative Commons

No one seems interested in what this will do to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society. This is more than likely why the sector is primed for cuts: they can go relatively unnoticed.

What is most affecting are the stories that this petition has brought up, a scroll through the comments shows us why adult further education is important. “I'm a mature FE student, like many LGBT people I lost out on educational opportunities when I was younger due to bullying and discrimination. Everyone deserves the chance to make their lives better at any age,” says one. “I went through the process myself, without funding I would still be unemployed, not being a positive contributing member to society,” says another.

Education is something that everyone should have access to, regardless of age, means or background. Cutting funding to adult further education bars adults from the opportunities they need to succeed and be part of the working world. If a petition to return a punching climate-change denier back to our screens can reach just under a million, surely one to save people’s futures can do better.