It is becoming increasingly recognized that education is a process which continues throughout adult life. The scope of adult and continuing education has widened in recent years and now included, in addition to the development of the individual through cultural，physical and craft pursuits, such subjects as basic education： education for disadvantaged groups and those with special needs such as ethnic minorities or the disabled； consumer education； health education； and pre-retirement education. Continuing education includes training for those in employment, to enable them to keep pace with technological change. The British government has taken a number of recent initiatives to improve opportunities for both adult and continuing education. In 1982 it launched a Professional, Industrial and Commercial Updating Program,designed to help colleges and universities to meet the need to up-date and broaden the skills of those in mid-career in industry, commerce and the professions. A three-year program to encourage the expansion of educational opportunities for the adult unemployed was launched in 1984.
Apart from provision for mature students at universities.courses are provided by further education collegesadult education centers residential colleges,the Open Universities and various other bodies including a number of voluntary organizations. Most of the provision is made by the local education authorities in a wide variety of establishments? including schools used for adult evening classes and community schools which provide educational t social and cultural opportunities for the wider community. Most courses are part-time. Local authorities also maintain or aid many courses lasting between a weekend and a fortnight. Long-term residential colleges, grant-aided by central government departments, provide courses of one or two years and aim to provided a liberal education without academic entry tests. Most students admitted are entitled to full maintenance grants.
The word “initiatives” in the 1st paragraph, most probably means ______.