Cornwall Celebrates Lifelong Learning

To mark Adult Learners’ Week in late May, Andrea Stevens, WEA Tutor Organiser for Cornwall, decided to demonstrate the range of people taking WEA classes by finding learners from each end of the age range in the county.

The youngest learner this year was 17 year-old Daniel Tregear, who is combining his studies at Helston College with a year-long WEA course in British Sign Language (BSL). At the other end of the spectrum is Stefan Rasmussen, 91, who attends a computing class for visually impaired people at the Sight Centre in Truro.

Stefan’s son commented that the weekly computer class is a real life-line for his father and has made a huge difference to him. Course tutor Alison Griffin said, “Stefan has a wonderful sense of humour and a fantastic memory. He is writing a history of his life in Denmark during the Second World War; sometimes he writes in English and sometimes the memories are so vivid that he reverts to Danish.”

Stefan’s class is one of six run by the WEA in partnership with the Cornwall Blind Association – the courses were praised after a recent Adult Learning Inspectorate visit for the remarkable achievements made by the learners, all of whom have significant visual impairment. The classes include people of all ages who need to learn how to use a computer in order to communicate, keep abreast of internet information and services, or learn skills for employment or leisure activities.

Each learner on these courses follows a learning plan designed specifically for them, which involves not only how to use computers, email and the internet, but also applying that knowledge to tasks such as researching and booking holidays, producing greeting cards, writing letters, stories and memoirs (and getting them published!), editing digital photographs and more.

Stefan is pictured at a tea party before class on 23 May, which was attended by fellow course members, guide dogs, family members, WEA staff and volunteers and representatives of the Cornwall Blind Association. He was presented with a small gift and certificate by John Hurst, Chairman of the Mid-Cornwall WEA branch. Daniel was unable to attend, but will receive a book token and certificate from his BSL tutor Sue Curtis.