Become an ambassador for the WEA

There's nothing more powerful than word of mouth

From the moment you experience what it's like to learn with the WEA, hear about it through word-of-mouth, or read about the beneficial effects that our courses have had on individuals and communities as a whole, you just want to get involved and tell more people!

We want to bring our learning in reach of all those who need it - but to do that, we need more people to know about the WEA. We need to convince policy and funding decision-makers of our impact so that they can give us access to reach even more people.

To do that, we’d love you to help us get our message out.

Those in need of life skills: Know someone who needs to develop everyday life skills, such as budgeting, confidence building or keeping healthy? Or perhaps you know someone looking to improve their writing and reading skills? Point them to our Skills for life section on this website where they can find the online or local course that's right for them. If they're looking for extra information, or need individual help and support, they can always:

Call our friendly learner support team on 0300 303 3464

Use our live chat (at the bottom right of every page between 9am and 5pm)

Email us via our enquiry form here.
Those who need skills for work: We’ve got courses for everyone – from those who need to take their first steps into work to those that want to progress at work - either getting a better-paid job or branching out into a new career. Our Skills for work section on this website would be perfect for them. We also provide a number of free downloadable guides that may be useful, including one on writing your CV and one to prepare for an interview. You can find them on our downloads section of the website.
Those who want to find or develop a new hobby: Right from the WEA's outset (over a hundred years ago!), we have worked to provide a broad range of creative courses to suit everyone; from Arts & Crafts, Languages & Culture, to Humanities & Science.

Many of these courses are delivered through our local learning networks, branches and associations. If building connections, making new friends and growing your community could appeal, show them our learning networks page. It includes a handy map, so people can find a network near to them.
Education policy and funding decision-makers: There’s no doubt that the public purse is tight. If you can help us make the case for decisions that enable more learners to benefit from WEA learning, we’d love you to help.

How? You can do so by sharing our Impact report which evidences the importance of our work through statistics and learner stories. If you are in a position to meet with them, then why not use our elevator pitch or our Advocacy pack for a presentation (both are available from here).

Please do connect them with our Public Affairs Manager, Chris Butcher at [email protected], to further any conversations and connect them with members of the Leadership team.
Community organisations who can help us reach local people: The WEA already partners with over 1000 community organisations to reach those who need our learning most.

But we are always keen to work with more. There’s information available on the work we do to support different communities - the unemployed, refugees, those in rehabilitation, those with physical and mental health conditions (wellbeing, independent living, disabled) - as well as information for social prescribers.

Find out more at our partnerships page.
Employers who need to recruit or develop employees: We take a flexible approach to develop courses that prepare people for work and that meet employers' specific recruitment needs.

We also offer courses to support existing staff in skills development and wellbeing. Why not point your contact to our Developing employees page or encourage them to connect with Nick Howard, our Partnerships Manager at [email protected] or on 07825 111536?

Become a WEA ambassador

Our WEA ambassador role is aimed at anyone who can talk informally, passionately and realistically about the challenges and rewards of studying as an adult.

The role involves contributing to the communication of WEA priorities, fundraising and supporting learner and membership recruitment.

A full description of the ambassador role and responsibilities can be found here.

If you know of anyone that you think would want to fulfil this type of volunteer role, or you too would like to be an ambassador, then please complete the nomination form and send to the volunteering mailbox at [email protected].