Wakefield Council to host new adult education courses

The council said the course are intended to help people improve job prospects, deal with mental health issues and learn digital skills.

New courses this year include Mental Health First Aid and Advocacy in the Workplace Level 2 and Bullying in Children & Young People Level 2. Essential Digital Skills for Employment is also new along with the Sustainable Communities Level 1 course, plus many more.

The service has worked with 1,630 adult residents across the district on a range of qualification and non-qualification courses in the last year.

Since January 2021, learners have taken more than 70 different examinations and based on the results received so far, the service is expecting almost 90 per cent of them to have passed their qualifications and 98 per cent will have gained the experience and skills they set out to personally achieve.

In the latest learner survey, 97.4 per cent of respondents said they are very likely or likely to recommend the service to friends or family and almost all the learners remained on the courses they started before or during lockdown.

The service has a successful Learning Support team and of those learners declaring they had a disability, health or learning difficulty when they started on the programme, the team and tutors supported nearly 99 per cent of them to remain on programme until the end of their course and the majority achieved what they set out to achieve.

Coun Darren Byford, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Economic Growth and Poverty, said: “We pride ourselves on providing a great service, giving residents opportunities to learn and develop their skills.

“The Adult and Community Education Service is making a huge difference by helping people to gain the qualifications they need – which also plays an important role in supporting the district’s economy.

“All our courses are designed to enhance skills, boost future job prospects, build confidence and enable people to take up a new pastime – so I’d urge people to check out what’s new and see how education can help you to progress.”

Many adult learners are entitled to a free course or help with childcare, travel or equipment and the September course guide, with more than 50 courses up to Level 3, is available online at https://www.wakefield.gov.uk/adulteducation/.

For further information, call 01924 30330, email [email protected] or visit facebook.com/wakefieldadulteducation.