When Toni Pearce ran for National Union of Students (NUS) Vice-President for Further Education she put adults at the heart of her manifesto, pledging to champion the cause of learners "studying in the workplace, as distance learners or re-skilling later in life" and to make the NUS more accessible to them. It's a promise which, now in office, she is determined to keep. Pearce, NUS new elected head of further education, is determined to challenge what she sees as the sector's obsession with full-time 16 to 18-year-old students. She told the author why engaging adult students is one of her priorities.