Axe hangs over community education

The WEA (Workers’ Educational Association) receives a contract from the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) which enables it to provide courses free of charge to many people who could otherwise not afford to engage in learning. However, this contract expires in August 2008 and from then WEA will have to seek support from further education colleges which may – or may not – be in a position to sub-contact work to the WEA or another third party organisation.

DEL funding accounted for 60% of WEA’s income in the last financial year so the loss of funding will have a significant impact on the organisation and its activities and consequently on its users.

Every WEA course is vetted by DEL to ensure that it contributes directly to the economy, so we are making a double contribution to Northern Ireland: building the economy and tackling the problem that 24% of the working age population of Northern Ireland have no qualifications.

It’s hard to attract people back into learning – NIACE (an education research body) found that 83% of people have not engaged to learning since leaving full time education and have no intention of doing so in the future.

Leading voluntary sector provider of adult learning

For almost 100 years the WEA has brought learning to adults across Northern Ireland. It is the leading voluntary sector provider of adult learning in the province. Last year 5,323 learners benefited from WEA courses in over 190 learning centres. The WEA’s vision is of a prosperous, creative and cohesive society where everyone is a learner and its mission is to make learning irresistible.

The WEA has a great deal of experience working with hard to reach learners, in particular those living in disadvantaged communities. It has learners in most of the Neighbourhood Regeneration Areas and these learners accounted for almost a third of the WEA’s total learners last year.

First step back into learning

For many learners the WEA is their first step back into learning. Many of them will have had a negative experience of education and find the WEA a less daunting experience due to the relaxed, informal approach it adopts to learning. A variety of courses is offered to entice people who missed out in the past back into learning.

These range from ECDL to creative crafts, from conflict management to sign language and from basic maths to business enterprise. WEA courses allow participants to develop skills such as confidence, communication, leadership, cultural sensitivity and problem solving that employers are seeking. These are also the main skills needed to build social capital and a shared future.

WEA learners have celebrated many successes in the past year, ranging from gaining their first qualification to winning national awards. One learner Davy Harbinson was awarded the Institute of Leadership and Management Learner of the Year Award after completing a Facilitative Leadership course with the WEA.

Earlier in the year Muriel Leathem who did a Graphic Design course with the WEA won an NCFE Regional Student of the Year Award for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Over 70% of WEA learners gain recognised qualifications and for many this is their first. Commenting on his WEA experience one Essential Skills learner said:

In October the WEA won a National Training Award for the Enterprise Arts project we launched in 2003 in partnership with Strabane District Council. The project was set up to help improve the area’s poor economic performance by tapping the potential of the creative industries.

It was extremely successful and also resulted in other benefits such as a greater feeling of civic pride and greater use of civic amenities by both sides of the community. One participant commented:

Better partnership shouldn't be at the expense of existing provision

The WEA cannot see the rationale for discontinuing the current funding arrangement. Although we are of the opinion that a better partnership between the voluntary sector and the further education sector is a good thing we do not agree that this should be at the expense of existing provision. We are concerned that a move to contracts from Further Education Colleges will lead to increased bureaucracy that will inevitably detract from the funds available to deliver learning on the ground.

Adult and community education has a vital role in supporting the development of the economy and society. We are concerned that these proposed changes will result in hard to reach learners losing out, particularly those in areas where educational achievement is low.

Well paid employment and the associated benefits for individuals, families and society depends on people gaining the skills and knowledge that the economy demands. However, for this to occur, a provider such as the WEA is needed to offer help and guidance and a positive learning experience to engage and retain hard to reach learners.

We are calling on the voluntary and community sector generally and anyone else interested in community learning to support us.

To find out about the WEA campaign to protect learning and to lend your support, log on to www.wea-ni.com and follow the link on the homepage to the campaign information.