19th Adult Learners’ Week ends Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 09:01

Adult Learners' Week celebrated the end of its 19th year and the remarkable learning journeys of adult learners, at a National Awards Ceremony in London, on Friday 21 May 2010. NIACE's patron, HRH The Princess Royal, offered a message of support:

"As Patron of NIACE I am pleased to send a message of support to NIACE as you celebrate Adult Learners' Week and I am sorry I cannot be with you."

"I congratulate all those learners, many of whom have overcome great difficulties to get back into learning and start out on the path to success. I hope you all enjoy Adult Learners' Week."

Details of this year's outstanding Adult Learners' Week award winners can be found online - by type of award or by region - and below are just a few examples:

When William Ride - aged 42, from Ripley - became a single father of his two sons after his wife's death from leukaemia, he approached his Sure Start centre for help. Six years later he is planning a career for himself working with children with an ambition to set up dads' groups in his area.

Following his visits to Sure Start, Barnardo's asked William to consider forming a fathers' group. Starting with a Saturday morning brunch club and a Dads' and Tots' Group, activities have spread rapidly throughout Derby including two conferences. He was also on a fundraising committee to pay for trips for families to local attractions.

William had always found learning difficult but he was determined to do his best for the children, so he took courses in Parenting, Diversity and Safeguarding, Handling Children's Behaviour and Child Protection. Now he is taking the NCFE Level 1 Working with Children course and plans to make this his career.

Learning was his key to success, he said:

"The learning I have done on the course has given me the skills in childcare and helped me with my knowledge and understanding."

Alesia Parshutsina, aged 21, from South Ockenden in Essex, is on her way to becoming a qualified teacher of British Sign Language, despite knowing barely any English until three years ago and being profoundly deaf.

There are few opportunities for deaf people in Alesia's native Belarus, so on leaving school, she came to the UK and signed up at the City Lit on its ‘New Start in the UK' course. Not only has she progressed through the Entry Levels of literacy and numeracy faster than most students, she has also taken British Sign Language, CLAIT and ECDL qualifications and branched out into such diverse subjects as Thai massage, watercolours and GCSE Maths.

Alesia acts as a peer teacher in class, volunteers and works part-time as PA to the Director of Empowering Deaf society and is an assistant teacher of British Sign Language. She said:

"In the UK I have the opportunity to enjoy life fully, get education I am interested in and no one pointing the finger at me because I am deaf."

Di Bradley, from Worle in Somerset, has reshaped the Nightjar as a community pub and has become the estate's librarian, college head and community education advisor.

Six years on, Di praises her customers for helping the pub flourish as a business and a lifelong learning centre. Hundreds signed up for the free lending library, which encouraged many to read for the first time since school. Other activities include home safety, art & design, IT basics and signing for the deaf - a challenging course completed by 11 learners.

"We started out trying to change people's attitudes towards estate pubs and the education just grew," she said. Many courses attracted funds from the Learning and Skills Council which gave feedback to show learning was very effective. "But also, because we are a small community we talk to each other all the time, so we constantly know what the learners enjoy and what they don't."

Anna Lindsay, a regular, said:

"I signed up for the short sign language course last summer and it has made a huge difference to me, as it has enabled me to communicate with my autistic nephew and will help me communicate with deaf patients in my new career as a nurse."

Arron Edwards, aged 21, from Watergate Bay in Cornwall, was getting in trouble with the law, until a training programme at Fifteen Cornwall led to an offer of a Chef De Partie position at a hotel and transformed his life.

Arron was referred to The Cornwall Foundation of Promise - the foundation behind the training programme at restaurant, Fifteen Cornwall - by the police and youth offending team. He was working as a chef but was getting into trouble with the law, partly due to anger management and drug issues. He was offered an opportunity at Fifteen Cornwall to gain kitchen skills and qualifications and, although he struggled to adapt at first, he went on to gain top kitchen grades within his group of trainees, also gaining an NVQ Level 1.

He went through an anger management programme and tackled his drug issues too. Following the part ESF-funded programme, Arron excelled on work placement at a hotel on the Isles of Scilly and was offered a paid Chef De Partie position. More recently, he has taken up the position of Head Chef at a restaurant in Newquay.

Arron believes the programme has helped him become a different person. He said:

"I have learnt many things... I have an understanding of the good things in life now and that makes me a positive person that only wants to learn more."

Tesco Old Swan, in Liverpool, is a group of five women who demanded the right to learn at work and in succeeding have also helped create a model union learning initiative that has been copied across the retail trade.

When their union, Usdaw, offered help finding basic skills courses at local colleges in 2007, through the Check-out Learning campaign, the five staff at Tesco, Old Swan, instead negotiated space in the store's training room and had tutors brought in to teach them.

"We didn't think it would work," said Julia Baldwin, their nominator and union lifelong learning project worker. "But it did and now we are using it across the sector. It shows that when you listen to the learners you get the best ideas." The five managed to fit in their ESF funded learning around shifts and busy lives and have gained qualifications ranging from Entry Level numeracy and literacy to basic Spanish, IT and sign language certificates.

Helen Scahill, one of the five, said:

"If I had to go to college I would be nervous working with new people, but I find working with my colleagues they are classmates and you settle a lot easier."

Rachel Thomson, Senior Campaigns Officer at NIACE, said:

"Adult Learners' Week is a chance to get involved, to make a difference and to - maybe - change your life. With thousands of events and taster sessions taking place up and down the country - in museums, libraries, colleges and community centres - it's the ideal time to try your hand at something new, to learn new skills or rediscover a long-lost interest. Learning as an adult is good for your health, your self-esteem and your employability, so don't miss out on the opportunities available."

"With the nation recovering from the recession, now could be a crucial time to get back into learning, to give you the skills you need to stay in work, or even get a better job. To find out what's happening during Adult Learners' Week either check out our website or call Careers' Advice on 0800 100 900."