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Inspectors boost for health education!

WEA staff and members are delighted that Ofsted -government education inspectors- awarded their health education courses an ‘Outstanding’ grade. Pete Caldwell, West Midlands Regional Director of the UK’s largest voluntary education provider, commented ‘Health improvement is one of our biggest programme priorities so this is great news’.  Inspectors remarked on the outstanding quality of the provision and that staff were ‘very enthusiastic and well motivated’.

WEA were also complimented on their ‘very good collaborative working relationships with a wide range of voluntary and government bodies’. Harjinder Kang, manager of the region’s highly regarded Tandrusti (‘Good Health’) project agreed with the importance of this. ‘We work closely with lots of local community organisations as well as the Primary Care Trust and Local Authority. Without this co-operation we would never have achieved so much for thousands of local people.’

Overall the WEA was rated as ‘good’ with its flexible and highly responsive provision, excellent partnership work and the significant contribution of volunteers’ all being particularly commended. For the WEA this boost will give ‘further impetus to our plans to expand adult education in the area’

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Welcome to the WEA West Midlands Region!

Welcome to the site of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) in the West Midlands. Hopefully this site will give you a full introduction to the West Midlands WEA and pleasantly surprise you with the range of adult education programmes we provide on your doorstep. Or if you already knew about us, you could discover areas of our work you did not know about.

This site was launched in January 2007 and remains constantly under development. We have tried to make the information as comprehensive as possible, but if you cannot find what you are looking for, do contact us by selecting the relevant category on our contact form.

We are an inclusive organisation. That means that we want to work with and for all groups of learners and partners. And that is why we have tried to make this website as accessible as possible. If you have difficulties reading any of the information on this website, try the text only, text size and background colour options to the right of the search box above. If you need any other assistance, please select the 'website feedback' category on our contact form .

Who are we?

The Workers' Educational Association was founded in 1903 to provide learning opportunities for workers who would not otherwise have had a chance to improve their education or chances in life. Today we still very much believe in the ideals of that time, offering a second chance at education to adults who have previously missed out. However, over time we have broadened our programme, adapting our offer to today's needs. Hopefully you will find out by how much from this website.

We are a voluntary organisation; in fact, we are the largest voluntary provider of adult education in the United Kingdom. The national association is divided into ten regions: 9 in England and the Scottish association.

The West Midlands Region includes Shropshire, Staffordshire, Birmingham & the Black Country, Solihull, Coventry & Warwickshire and Herefordshire & Worcestershire.

In the academic year 2006/2007:

• We organised over 1,000 courses
• In over 300 different venues
• Using tutors from a pool of over 300
• Achieving nearly 10,000 enrolments

Our mission

The WEA is a 21^st Century, democratic, voluntary adult education movement, committed to widening participation and to enabling people to realise their full potential through learning.

Workers’ Educational Association. Registered charity number: 1112775.

Company limited by guarantee in England and Wales no: 2806910.

Registered office: 3rd floor, 70 Clifton Street, London, EC2A 4HB.