WEA courses

Take your first steps towards employment with our comprehensive course. Develop essential skills and knowledge needed for job applications, interviews, and workplace success. Ideal for individuals seeking to enter the job market.

How do the popular representations of smuggling in novels, songs, poems, paintings and film match up to the reality? We will look at some of the enduring romantic depictions alongside official records to consider the reality of life for people up and down the Essex coast in the 18th century engaged in smuggling or the fight against it.

Discover the wonderful practice of yoga with this introduction to yoga philosophy course according to Patanjali’s five foundational philosophical concepts (YAMAS) in the traditional text, THE YOGA . Whether you are seasoned yogi or just initiating an interest, you will love this course. This is a friendly course providing a nourishing blend between physical practice and theory. The aim is to help you discover how the practice of yoga can deepen your spiritual practice and bring more awareness to your life while practising having the self confidence to express yourself. It is ideal for those who want to keep physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually fit. It will offer you guidelines, like helping hands, to move you deeper into your own authenticity and into a life that is richer and fuller, simply because you are living with more skill. This course is ideal for people who like to contemplate how to live more skilfully as individuals and as a community.

Having a child or loved one receive an autism diagnosis can be worrying and unsettling. It’s difficult to know how best to support autistic children’s needs without external guidance. This autism course can teach you how to offer support to help autistic young people live healthy and fulfilling lives. This taster course is ideal for you if you have regular contact with autistic children or teenagers. It is aimed at parents, family members, community workers, or volunteers who interact closely with autistic kids. It can be useful both if you are going through diagnosis, and also if you feel you need extra resources to help support a developing autistic child.

This course will help you to understand the opportunities available to you through apprenticeships. Ever wondered how apprenticeships work and who they are for? Thought you were too old to start an apprenticeship? This course will develop your knowledge and awareness of the variety of apprenticeships available to you. Discover how to learn while competing on the job training in a specific role and how an apprenticeship can benefit your personal development. This course may lead to further training, higher education and employment. This course is funded by the West Midlands Combined Authority.

This friendly creative writing course will invite you to enter into relationship with your bodies and surroundings. The session will be held in a supportive way and will integrate some simple meditation (adaptable to all bodies), prompts for creative and reflective expression through writing, and even some environmental science! You will be guided to a holistic understanding of person and place. This course is ideal for people who like to write and to contemplate how to live more skilfully as individuals, as a community and in relationship with their surroundings. There will be time for sharing small parts of your writing towards the end of the workshop but no pressure, it’s about an unfolding individual/shared creative process and participants need to feel at ease to write freely.

The once mighty Ottoman Empire lost some of its lustre during the 18th Century. After its armies reached the walls of Vienna in 1683 the boundaries of the Sublime Porte contracted in a series of military, diplomatic and economic reverses. This course considers the ways in which the Ottomans responded to a changing world in the 19th century, seeking to preserve their position within it. We examine questions of politics, religion, language, culture and economics whilst all the while having an eye towards the consequences for the region, Europe and the world then and now

To attend this partnership course, you will have to register via EVENTBRITE Carbon Literacy – October 2024 ticket at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/carbon-literacy-october-2024-tickets-880713998277?aff=odcleoeventsincollection&keep_tld=1 as well as via WEA. You will have to make a payment via EVENTBRITE and cannot proceed with the course if you have not done both. Carbon Literacy is a term used to describe an awareness of climate change, and the climate impacts of humankind’s everyday actions. This course is designed specifically for charities and social enterprises working in public leisure and culture and gives you the knowledge and tools available to take impactful climate action.

This course is designed for beginner to intermediate artists who want to turn their crafts into a source of income. Participants will learn essential skills for creating marketable artwork, including crafting techniques, pricing strategies, and effective marketing methods. The course covers various art forms, helping students identify and develop their unique artistic style to attract buyers. Ideal for those looking to monetise their creativity, this course provides practical insights and guidance to successfully sell their artwork. By the end of the course, participants will have a understanding of how to create, market, and sell their artwork effectively. They will be equipped with the tools and knowledge to turn their passion for art into a source of income, confidently navigating the art market and establishing a successful creative business.

Religion has played a highly important part in the lives of human beings. The principal claim of the great monotheistic religions of the world is the following: God exists. This course considers this claim. It considers to begin with some of the traditional arguments for this claim: an ontological argument; some cosmological arguments; some design arguments; and an argument from the religious experience of God. It then considers (briefly) the principal argument against this claim: the problem of evil. It proceeds rationally and rigorously. No prior specialist knowledge is required to attend this course.