The heads of further education colleges fear the introduction of both changes in tandem will cause a drastic drop in the number of adults signing up for study, something which will in turn put a sizeable chunk of their own state funding in jeopardy.In February last year the changes were presented as a simplification of the rules, an ironing out of a few anomalies: but, with an anxious eye on adult enrolments this week, the principal of Tower Hamlets College in East London, Annette Zera, says the changes are an example of government hypocrisy."After all, Britain lags well behind its neighbours with the size of its skilled workforce, and that's where the jobs are. "I told them I didn't really want it because of my college course and they said I would have to accept the next full-time job that came up."The part-time student's problems will be compounded by a second cutback being brought in tomorrow: the number of hours an unemployed person can study each week without being deemed a full-time student, and thus losing benefit, is being reduced from 21 to 16.Known as Regulation 11, this is likely to loom large over both students and teachers this term. But she has found it difficult to steer her way through benefit restrictions."After I was called for a Restart interview the other week, I was offered a full-time job at pounds 3.05 an hour doing shift work at McDonalds," she says. Determined to do better than simply living off the state at her parents' home in Essex, she came to London for proper training.

They are stepping up measures so it will be much more difficult for a student on benefit to stay on a course. Unsuitable jobs will be offered to part-time students more and more often as a test of whether they are really available for work."In theory, the Government is right behind people like Kelly. Such strictures stop anyone who is unemployed from honestly committing to, say, a two- year course of part-time study.Clara Donnelly, of the Unemployment Unit, puts it starkly: "The Government says that there has always been an insistence on readiness for work, but there is a huge change of emphasis. The questions printed on the new Jobseeker's Agreement ask claimants how many employers they will write to every week; how many they will phone; how many they will visit; how many times they will contact the Jobcentre; what newspapers and trade papers they will look in for jobs, and how often they will look.It asks them if they are willing to start work immediately, within 24 hours or within 48 hours; whether they are willing to work any days and any hours; and which days and which hours.Inappropriate answers will likely mean an end to payments.

To receive benefit, unemployed people like Kelly must become Jobseekers: they must actively and continually look for work, sign a detailed agreement to do so, and then prove that they are doing it The proving is the problem. The reason is the new Jobseeker's Allowance, which replaces Unemployment Benefit (and also the lowest of the safety nets, Income Support). The change of name is important: the Government intends to signal a change of role. From tomorrow, there will be tighter restrictions on payments to people out of work, which will to a large extent rule out serious education as an option for them. As she takes another afternoon off college to chase up a missing giro cheque, things already seem difficult to manage It will get worse. Kelly Johnson is unemployed and wants to study. Yet fundamental changes in the benefits system this week will make this virtually unworkable for the 21-year-old hairdressing student, and for at least 80,000 jobless people like her. He argues: "Not even in the Disneyland of right-wing Conservatism do they think it wise to rock the boat at this conference.".

The exception is Jerry "Gabby" Hayes, talkative as his Hollywood B-movie mentor, who not only thinks that the Government can win the election, but also believes the hard-hats will keep quiet. This is their last opportunity to step down the catwalk before the poll that counts.Since it is virtually political suicide to do so, Tory MPs will not go public on their hunches. Hardliners want John Major to "cut through his ministers' private agendas" and pledge in his conference speech on Friday that no government he leads will scrap the pound and sign up for the euro.Mr Major's spin-doctors insist that "apart from a bit of intellectual positioning on the fringe", the leadership contenders are not going to display themselves in Bournemouth Fat chance. The Chancellor has infuriated Eurosceptics with his mildly-encouraging noises about a single European currency and the possibility that a Tory government might join the first wave of participating countries in 1999. He unveils his manifesto today in Conservative Way Forward, the hard-right journal with a busty blonde on the cover (excuse? she is sitting on a seaside rock alongside "clear blue water"), arguing: "If we had another great tax cutting Budget we will go up in the polls."The Great Clarke Issue is the other item on the unpublished agenda. He plans a frantic fringe, talking on Tuesday about Winning the Election, the day after at a News International-sponsored event on Globalisation, and speaking to a Yorkshire Conservative Political Centre breakfast on Thursday on a Europe of Nations.In between times, he has a full diary of meals with influential media folk, when he is not kinnocking from one television studio to another. Much the same is said of Gillian Shephard, the Education Secretary.The Vulcan himself, John Redwood, will not get to the conference rostrum, of course, because he did have the nerve to challenge Major last summer.