‘At last things are looking up for me’

A prizewinning student tells Rebecca Cooney how an adult education college is helping her to achieve her dream

A mum-of-two who fled political unrest in Eritrea and studied English to try to fulfil her lifelong ambition to become a nurse has earned the Building Life Skills Through ESOL prize as part of Adult Learners’ Week.

Aster Ghebreyesus (pictured), 40, came to the UK in 1998 determined to become a nurse. But her English wasn’t good enough and she found work as a bus driver.

But after a health scare forced her to rethink her future, she seized the opportunity to pursue her dream and enrolled on a course at London’s Morley College.

“When I had my daughter I discovered that I had a heart problem and that sooner or later I would have to have an operation and wouldn’t be able to do my bus driving job afterwards. I had to do something to secure a job after my operation and that’s why I started studying ESOL,” she said.

“It’s made a big difference to me — it’s a totally different experience when you’re learning rather than just speaking to other people.

“You get experience from the people in the class as well, because everyone is learning from each other.”

Aster left Eritrea in 1991 and was separated from most of her family when the country gained independence from Ethiopia.

“My dad had campaigned for Eritrea and Ethiopia to stay united so they arrested him on independence day and we couldn’t stay any more,” she said.

Initially she went to Ethiopia, but when border tensions between the two countries flared in 1998, the Ethiopian authorities attempted to deport her and, unable to return to Eritrea, she moved to Kenya and then to the UK. She now lives in Lewisham, south London.

She said: “Since I was a child I wanted to be a nurse but my father halted my ambitions.

“So when I came here I was determined to do it, but I found it hard without English. Now that I have my children I decided this was the right time.”

Within a year of enrolling on the level one course at Morley in September 2010, Aster was able to start an introductory course that combined nursing and midwifery with further English and maths. In September last year she was accepted on to Morley’s one-year pre-access to nursing and midwifery programme.

“I felt so happy when I found out I’d been accepted… I’m really enjoying my course,” she said. “I still find working on my writing skills challenging, but the ESOL and introductory courses have definitely helped and I feel that I’m making good progress.”

Morley principal, Ela Piotrowska, said: “Aster has achieved a great deal during her time here.

“She is a dedicated, hard-working student and a great inspiration to others.

“Her achievements and passion for learning make her popular among her tutors and fellow students, and have inspired her family and friends.”

Aster will collect her award at a ceremony on Thursday.

She said: “Studying has been really helpful to me and I’m very glad I’ve won this award, I’m excited.

“At last things are looking up for me and I can see myself and my children having a better future.”

It’s the taking part that counts

Adult Learners’ Week rightly celebrates its award winners. But what of the future? With a spending review looming in June, David Hughes wonders what the prospects are for adults who catch the learning bug now

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education strives for a society in which all adults have opportunities to learn throughout their lives. We know that it brings all sorts of benefits for ourselves, our families, our communities, our work as well as for the economy of the country.

Ultimately a learning society will have more people living healthy, fulfilling lives in stronger communities and as part of a more prosperous economy.

Adult Learners’ Week is a chance every year to celebrate people who have achieved amazing things. Their stories are truly inspiring: these are people who now have fulfilling careers, who are dynamic members of their communities, who have vastly improved their health.

During the week the publicity we gain and the thousands of local events nudge all sorts of people to have a go at learning, often for the first time in many years. Unsurprisingly, this is often a trigger to go on to more formal learning and on to achieving great things.

The week’s winners achieve exceptional things, often overcoming tough barriers and challenges. But thousands of others have similar stories to tell. Learning for adults is like that – it helps people transform their lives and has many wider benefits.

This year, though, it is difficult not to look ahead with trepidation and to wonder whether our winners will be the exception in the future. With a spending review due in June and with tough cuts looming, I wonder what the prospects are for adults who catch the learning bug now and want to learn over the coming years.

Many adults who return to learning need extra support to get started, latitude to try different things before they find the right route, and understanding when the messiness of life and other responsibilities causes hiccups in their progression.

Adult Learners’ Week is critical in reminding politicians about how learning works”

Many adults don’t know what they want from their learning at the outset; that is in part the beauty of it, it opens minds to new ways of thinking, to knowledge, greater self-awareness and to opportunities. My worry is that extra support and time to decide is harder to offer when funding gets tighter.

My greatest fear is that the only learning on offer for adults will become narrow, and prescriptive, that it will presume that, right at the start, they will be able to make simple, rational choices of which qualification to go for and where they want to get to from.

Learning for adults has to be more than that; it has to allow people to grow, to develop, to find out about themselves and what they are capable of – it has to help them to learn about themselves and the world around them.

When it does do that it nearly always helps them to achieve other things – to find work, get a better job, to volunteer, to help with caring and so on. Those are the wider benefits of something very personal.

For me, then, Adult Learners’ Week this year is critical in reminding politicians and their advisers about how learning works, what it achieves and what would be lost if funding cuts bite too hard. That’s why we invited previous winners to our parliamentary reception and why we have sent invitations to all of our awards ceremonies – both national and regional – to the constituency MPs of this year’s winners.

Winners’ stories make more of an impact sometimes than a raft of statistics or a myriad of research findings. In the end, I don’t really mind what influences the investment as long as it helps other people achieve what our winners have achieved.

David Hughes, chief executive, NIACE

Learning to juggle home and work

A local college is helping five young Bolton mums to balance home life and career development.

Bethany Sutton, 18, Samantha Norris and Natalie Davies, both 19, and Amy Mason and Chelsea Stringfellow, both 20, are all enrolled on courses with Bury College.

Their studies include work at Bolton’s Rosehill Nursery — where their children are cared for.

They have all completed qualifications in children and young people’s workforce and creative crafts, and have now moved up qualification levels.

They study for one day a week with their Bury tutor and do three days a week work experience at the nursery.

Samantha said: “I found juggling work and a young child hard; however, it was rewarding to receive my certificates.

“Being around other young parents is good because they can relate to how I am feeling.

“I’m looking forward to completing level three and going on to university as I would like to be a primary school teacher.”

Featured image caption: Back, from left: Samantha and Lacey Norris, 2; Natalie Davies and Caysey Brooks, 2; and Amy and Olivia Mason, 3 (centre). Front, from left: Bethany Sutton and Grace Bowling, 1; and Chelsea and Lyla Stringfellow, 2

Students make their mark in Bracknell

Art students from Bracknell & Wokingham College have made the drawings of local primary schoolchildren into a permanent mural on a town underpass.

Students painted the mural, designed by children from Wooden Hill Infant School, after their original drawing, printed on to a plastic coating material stuck to the underpass, began to peel off.

College art tutor Jan Allen said: “The school wanted the images to stay almost as the children had designed them with a little bit of refining. The students each worked on a specific area, but the images retain that child-like look.”

Every year BTec art students at the college complete a community art unit where they design and develop work to be used locally.

Bracknell councillor Mary Temperton, who originally contacted the college to ask for help on the project, said: “College art students helped restore the faith of young art pupils.”

Featured image caption: Bracknell & Wokingham College art students in front of the mural they painted for children from Wooden Hill Primary School (also pictured)

Double helpings for trainee chef

A trainee chef studying at Salford City College’s Walkden Sixth Form Centre has been offered jobs at two high profile restaurants.

Stuart Fraser has been ofafered posts at London restaurant Hix and at Sam’s Chop House in Manchester. The 18-year-old level three hospitality and culinary arts student, from Lower Broughton, impressed chef Mark Hix during a fortnight’s work experience at his flagship West End eaterie in the capital. The Manchester offer followed soon after.

Lee Allsup, head of hospitality and culinary arts, said: “This is a fantastic achievement by Stuart — to have received two offers of employment from two high quality restaurants is just brilliant.

“I know he is still considering both offers, but I am sure he will excel in whichever he chooses.”

Featured image caption: Salford City College chef Stuart Fraser

‘Love and loss’ film wins award

The tale of a boy who jumps in and out of a newspaper before dying helped three media students win best animation at the Staffordshire Film Festival.

Solihull College 18-year-olds Laura-Jane Gregory, Rhiannon Lloyd and Jessie Doyle developed the idea from the opening credits of Russell Howard’s Good News television programme.

Their two-minute film, One More Day (with you), took four months to complete.

Laura-Jane said it aimed to highlight the importance and value of spending time with siblings. “We really wanted to connect with the audience and decided that featuring a child was the way to do this,” she said.

“The decision to end the story with the boy dying was brave, but we wanted to highlight love and loss.”

The girls are currently completing extended diplomas in creative media production in media (TV and Film) at the college.

Featured image caption: Rhiannon Lloyd, Laura-Jane Gregory and Jessie Doyle

Diners get their fill of India

Cheshire foodies got more than a culinary taste of India when hospitality and catering students teamed up with travel and tourism events management learners.

A spicy four-course meal was backed up with holiday destination promotions during an Indian-themed night at South Cheshire College’s Restaurant on the Crescent.

Chefs from Bombay Restaurant in Crewe oversaw hospitality and catering students as they sent dishes, including onion bhajis and chicken tikka balti, out to more than 35 guests.

Bombay chef Raz Hoque said: “This was something completely different for us. We look forward to working with the college again in the future.”

Chef lecturer Shane Guildford said: “It was great for our students to work with chefs from one of the best Indian restaurants in the area. It gave them the chance to serve different food dishes under expert guidance.”

Featured image caption: South Cheshire College travel and tourism students Emma Fiddes Jamie Reilly, both 19, and Lauren Blainey, 18, promoting India as a holiday destination

Balls backs book on stammering

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls dropped in on London adult college City Lit to launch a new book on stammering therapy.

Mr Balls, who has a stammer, had been interviewed by City Lit speech and language therapist Jan Logan for a chapter in Stammering Therapy from the Inside – New Perspectives on Working with Young People and Adults.

Mr Balls said: “I hope this book full of personal stories will help to raise awareness and understanding of some of the challenges stammerers face every day.

“With the right help and support, we know that children and adults can deal with their stammer and do well in whatever walk of life they choose.”

The book was edited by City Lit speech and language therapy tutors Carolyn Cheasman and Rachel Everard, and independent therapist Sam Simpson.

Featured image caption: Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls with City Lit speech and language therapist Jan Logan

Aiming high in Nottingham’s centre

A football pitch on the roof and science labs that will focus on low carbon technology are just two of the features of Central College Nottingham’s proposed £70m city centre base.

The building is planned for the Broadmarsh East area of the city and is expected to take up to five years to complete.

The relevant authorities are currently discussing funding, planning and logistics.

The planned six-storey centre, which has the capacity for 4,000 students, will focus on science, technology, engineering and maths, and will include labs looking at low carbon technology and an all-weather pitch on the roof.

Principal Malcolm Cowgill said: “The new build is part of our long-term ambition to improve education and progression to employment in Nottingham.

“This links to the college’s new name, Central [formerly South Nottingham College], revolving around a ‘hub and spoke’ strategy; a central hub — the flagship Nottingham City base — with a number of spoke centres of learning around Nottinghamshire.”

Featured image caption: Central College Nottingham principal Malcolm Cowgill (left) and vice principal David Drury looking over plans for the college’s £70m new build