We are an adult education charity providing part-time courses and educational opportunities for all adults. Our main funding is for people who are 19 years of age or over. You can read more about who we are and how we are funded here.
What kind of courses we run.
Our courses are usually part time and run during the day, usually weekdays, but we also run evening classes and weekend 'day schools'. All courses open to members of the public are listed on our course search.
Many of our courses are run by volunteer-led branches. As such we have a very wide range of subjects on offer from science subjects, through to arts and literature, music and dance - to name a few.
WEA regional offices run courses on similar subjects, as well as educational projects and programmes, to help adults return to learn for skills like literacy, numeracy and others.
We also run courses that are developed for special-interest groups, for people who have particular educational needs. These courses are not usually listed on our course search and are created in tandem with one of our partner organisations who may, for example, be another charity or community group.
Some of our courses carry an accreditation as part of the course, depending on the subject and nature of the course.
You can read more about our general approach to adult education here.
How long our courses run for.
WEA courses can be as short as one day, for example a Saturday school, but can last up to twenty weeks or more. Typically out courses are 'short courses' running for about ten weeks, for one or two sessions each week, for the duration.
Course fees.
Our course fees vary according to the length of the course and how many teaching hours the course involves. You will find all course fees listed on our online course search and our brochures. Our fees are subsidised due to our funding from the Skills Funding Agency. In addition, some people are eligible for fee-remission. You can read more about this in the financial help section on this website.
Our academic year and our term times.
Our academic year has three terms:
Autumn is our main term, with courses starting anytime from September through to November.
Winter term in our next busiest term, as far as number of courses, and classes typically start in January.
Our least busy term is Spring, around April, when we have a smaller course offering up until the summer holiday period.