Workers Educational Association

By Alan Thompson

The Workers Educational Association celebrated its centenary last year, combining learning with a commitment to social justice and democracy.

The WEA in Merseyside runs an utterly mind-mangling amount of courses, from Current Affairs to Creative Writing to Embroidering to History, and in order to give us the lowdown on the organisation, Nerve had a word with Tim Stone, the Tutor Organiser for Liverpool.

After a hundred years, how is the WEA making itself still a viable force, considering the vast expansion in state-provided adult education?

The unique thing about the WEA is that we are the largest adult education provider in the country. Because we are run on a democratic basis, our students can sit on committees and participate in the running of the WEA. We also provide varied courses, many of which are tailored to the local area.

As time has gone by, how has the WEA had to adapt to fit in with changing social trends?

In the beginning, the WEA was set up to help those who didn't have many opportunities for education. This was in the days of strictly limited university places. But still the ethos is that anyone has the ability to learn. Some people have mistakenly thought that the WEA is elitist but it caters for all aspects of the community. The General Programme is open to everyone, including subsidies for those on certain benefits. The Community Programme...(includes) those with learning disabilities, long-term unemployed and asylum seekers.

How does the WEA provide a less hierarchical form of education?

Nearly all we do involves a very democratic mode of learning. If you take the study of local history for example, it is very participation-based, from putting family history on the web, to constructing local histories. We want to encourage people to learn using as many different formats as possible and not the lecture-only format.

What do you see in the future for the WEA?

I think that the future will involve standardising the curriculum across the district, as this will reduce the workload massively and enable us to concentrate more effectively on other aspects of the job that need attention. An area we want to expand in is outdoor education. Once people start to learn, they always want to learn more. That is my experience and within the WEA, people can express themselves as we offer that freedom.

For the latest courses; http://www.wea.org.uk