Sign Up Now News
Campaign to encourage adults to sign up to learning launched
As September signals the start of a new academic year for millions of children across the country, a national campaign, Sign Up Now - from NIACE (The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education) – encourages adults of all ages to think about returning to learn.
Sign Up Now – the sister campaign to Adult Learners’ Week – will run throughout September and at a time when local colleges, adult education centres, museums, libraries and other community and voluntary organisations nationwide will be showcasing the vast selection of courses on offer, from Art to Zoo Biology.
Backing the September Sign Up Now Campaign is Linda Worden, who learnt to read and write on the recent Channel 4 programme, Can’t Read Can’t Write. She said:
“You owe it to yourself to get an education and not anyone else. Don’t educate yourself for the benefit of others, do it for yourself. If you don’t take the opportunity to at least give it a go you will never know what you’re missing. If you don’t do it then you will never, ever know the gain. But in the end the gain to your life is worth everything…absolutely everything.”
Other people who have had a life changing experience through learning include
two of this year’s Adult Learners’ Week winners. Paul Lee, aged 36, from Oldham,
re-visited learning as an adult after having to give up bricklaying due to
ill-health. He is about to start a degree in History at Cambridge University.
Paul said:
“In many ways, I feel that I have wasted a big part of my life by not fulfilling my potential the first time around. Learning has given me a chance to rectify those earlier mistakes and to finally make something of my life. I never really did fit in as a builder… It is the pursuit of knowledge and understanding which I feel most passionate about - I know that now.”
Listen to the Paul Lee
podcast here [MP3 - 3MB]
For Marie Harvey, aged 46, from Birmingham, learning was a way to escape her abusive background and to become a role model to her eight children. She has done courses in literacy, numeracy and counselling and is starting a Diploma in Science at her son’s school this September. She said about learning:
“It has made me a stronger person. It made me realise what I had missed out on… [and] once I had started I could not stop. I wanted to keep learning – the more I did, the more I wanted to do. I’ve tried courses I would never have done otherwise.”
Maria Jordan, aged 47, from Leeds, has used learning to rebuild her life by training to be a hairstylist after only having spent two weeks at school as a child. She said:
“I came to college at the age of 43 to learn a new skill, improve my basic skills and to help me socially … During my first year I developed my reading and writing so that I could function normally with my everyday living. I also learnt basic hairdressing.” She continued, “I have learnt so much [through] being part of a team and the college environment … Learning has made me a more confident and happy person.”
As part of Sign Up Now there will be an online poll for the European Day of Languages (26th September) where people can vote for the language they would most like to learn. There will also be an Online Yearbook for learners to discuss their learning journeys and experiences, which book they read this summer and what they most want to learn and why they want to learn it. Visit www.signupnow.org.uk for more information.
Kamy Basra, Campaigns Officer at NIACE, said:
“The key message of Sign Up Now is learning can completely transform your life for the better. Take the opportunity to change your life this September and do something you’ve always wanted to do. Whether it’s learning a foreign language, brushing up on your reading and writing, gardening, photography or zoology and whether it’s to change or further your career, help your children with their homework or just for the fun of it – now is the best time.”
She continued, “All over the country courses are about to start at colleges, adult education centres, libraries, museums and community centres. And each year thousands of people get a thirst for knowledge that never dies. Sign Up Now to learning and you never know where it might lead – a dream job, new friends, more confidence or better health. To find out what's on offer where you are, call learndirect free on 0800 100 900. That one call could transform your life.”
Learning Works for Safari Park Bob
Adult Learners' Week award winner, Bob Lawrence, is Director of Wildlife at West Midlands Safari Park and has worked there for over 30 years. Bob speaks to NIACE Press Officer Ed Melia about his work with animals and why, in spite of being one of the country’s leading experts, he decided to go to University to study Zoo Biology.
Listen to the
Bob Lawrence interview here [MP3 - 1MB]
Learner of the Week - Bob Lawrence
Bob Lawrence’s day job makes him one of the most useful friends that his university classmates can have. They’re all studying zoo biology, but he lives it -and is more than happy to share his rhinoceroses, tigers and elephants with others on his course.
As the director of wildlife at a safari park, there’s not much he doesn’t know about caring for newborn lions or coping with a foot and mouth outbreak, but going back into education after 35 years was a real challenge -for his teachers as well as him.
“The students were a bit wary of me at first,” Bob, 57, says.“So were the lecturers. I’ve been doing this job since before some of them were born.”
But despite this vast experience, he feels that he still has a lot to learn. He had always encouraged his staff to study and, despite having been out of education for 35 years, thought it was about time he set an example. “Your learning curve never levels out,” he says.
“It has been a revelationary eye-opener. It has helped me to see my vocation in an entirely new perspective and opened up new horizons. I wish I could study the course full-time.”
When Bob isn’t studying part-time for his BSc, he is managing elephants, lions, rhino and a staff of 0 people at West Midlands Safari Park. He invites other students to the park to get first-hand experience such as feeding the tigers and the camels.
Would he consider further study after his BSc? “I wouldn’t mind going further into conservation,” he says. And retirement? “It’s never entered my head.”
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Watch Bob Lawrence’s Adult Learners’ Week Video - [wmv file]
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Photograph copyright: www.hollisphotography.com