Band 8+: The chart below shows the number of men and women in further education in Britain in three periods and whether they were studying full-time or part-time. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar chart provided illustrates the British population engaging in full-time and part-time further education courses over a 20-year period.

It is clear that part-time students far outnumbered those on full-time programmes in each of the years shown. It is also noticeable that men’s numbers witnessed a period of instability, while the trend for women gradually went up in both kinds of education.

In 1970/71, there were 1 million male learners taking part in part-time education classes, then the figure slightly decreased by 100 thousand before climbing back to 920 thousand people in 1990/91. Meanwhile, men pursuing full-time courses recorded a more stable growth. Standing at under 200 thousand learners at the beginning of the period, the figure moderately rose and hit its highest point in 1990/91, about 300 thousand people.

Regarding women, the number of learners of both types of education increased over the time frame. About 780 thousand individuals chose part-time education, fourfold those on full-time ones. Over a decade, from 820 thousand people, the figure jumped to a peak at 1.1 million in 1990/91, compared to only 300 thousand full-time residents.