David Blunkett joins WEA friends to celebrate formation of WEA Yorkshire and Humber
 St Mary’s Community centre in Sheffield was the location for a party last month, held to celebrate the coming together of the Yorkshire North and Yorkshire South Districts to form the WEA’s new Yorkshire and Humber Region. Ann Walker, Regional Secretary for Yorkshire and Humber welcomed staff, voluntary members, learners and partners to the event. The new Region covers an area that takes in everything from the Dales to inner cities and will be offering 3000 courses in 2004/2005. This year, the new region is expecting 35,000 learner enrolments from across its educational programmes, which include workplace learning, community learning projects and part-time day and evening classes arranged by its 65 volunteer-led branches.
One of the highlights for everyone present was an impassioned speech on the subject of adult education from David Blunkett, Home Secretary and long-standing member and supporter of the WEA. Mr Blunkett reminded guests of his involvement with the WEA and said the Association continues to play a necessary and distinctive role in adult education in Britain with its provision of learning opportunities to adults, especially those who have not benefited from formal education.
Learners from the Region were also on hand to share their experiences of learning with the WEA. Shirley Harris from York took her first WEA course, in Geology, in 1970. Now 77 years old, she has taken courses in subjects as varied as musical theory, literature and art, and has gone from being a student to running the York branch of the WEA and serving on the District Committee. Christine Brown from Wressle, first started out on a WEA ‘Return to Learn’ course after leaving work as a postlady through ill health. After studying basic computing she went on to take courses in word processing and desktop publishing and is now a WEA Voluntary Education Advisor, supporting other students in their own learning journeys. The second learner to speak was Ruth Patchett who has been involved in the WEA for 10 years. Ruth who lives on a farm in the Yorkshire Dales, started by taking a computer course to improve the record keeping for the family farm. She went on to obtain a teaching qualification so that she could run courses specifically for farmers who needed IT skills. The course is part of the WEA ‘Training on Wheels’ scheme, where tutors teach ‘on location’ using laptops in order to provide better access to studying and qualifications. Closing the contributions from WEA learners was Paul Spawforth who spent 20 years as a refuse collector, trawling the streets of West Yorkshire. Having attended the WEA's Return to Learn course his life has changed completely. He studied computing, became a Voluntary Education Advisor and is now coordinating an NVQ scheme for Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. After his contribution to the event, Paul even made headlines in the Yorkshire Post with a story called “From Bins to Education”!
Drawing the evening’s event to a close, Ann Walker said she was proud to be leading the Region and said that the new structure would enable the WEA to reach thousands more learners across Yorkshire and Humberside, and enable to the Association to continue to developing its distinctive contribution to post-16 learning.
Further information on the work of the WEA’s Yorkshire and Humber Region can be obtained from:
Workers’ Educational Association
6 Woodhouse Square
Leeds, LS3 1AD
 0113 245 3304
 0113 245 0883
 yorkshumber@wea.org.uk
 http://www.wea.org.uk/yh/index.htm
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October News