WEA courses

Thrive in a Changing World: Build Your Emotional Resilience Feeling overwhelmed by life's constant challenges? This 7-week Emotional Resilience course equips you with powerful tools to navigate uncertainty and build inner strength. Explore how your thoughts, emotions, and experiences influence your mental well-being and overall resilience. Discover effective coping strategies to manage stress, stay positive, and communicate effectively in your social circles. By examining your life perspective and approach, you'll gain the confidence to recharge your batteries and cultivate a more positive outlook.

Begin your journey towards a rewarding career in education with our Introduction to Being a Teaching Assistant course. Learn the essential skills and knowledge required to support teachers and students in the classroom. Ideal for individuals considering a career in education.

Do you help out at a school or youth centre? If you volunteer in a setting with children, it’s important to have an understanding of basic paediatric first aid. This paediatric first aid course gives you an introduction to the essential life-saving skills that can make all the difference in an emergency situation. This course is ideal for you if you work informally with children, toddlers, or babies. It is useful in a variety of settings, including sports halls, community hubs, and youth centres. It is also perfect for new parents who want to understand basic first aid to look after their children.

You will learn core skills that boost your confidence, such as emailing files, creating letters, and designing posters. Building on the skills gained in Part 1, this course focuses primarily on Microsoft Word. You will master document formatting, efficient file management, and creative design techniques. By the end of the course, you will be proficient in using Word to produce professional documents, effectively communicate via email, and create visually appealing posters, ensuring you are well-prepared for various digital tasks. This course is funded by the West Midlands Combined Authority. Participants must live in Coventry Area Postcodes CV1 to CV6 inclusive.

At the end of the First World War, Germany underwent dramatic change. The Kaiser abdicated, and the country emerged from a period of autocratic rule to embark on a bold and (on paper) very progressive experiment in republican democracy. At the same time, the victorious allies of the Great War imposed a punitive peace treaty on Germany at Versailles, reflecting their belief that Germany has caused the war and should pay the price. These changes, together with other factors such as the worldwide economic situation between the wars ushered in a period of social, political and financial turbulence in which Hitler and the Nazis would eventually rise to power.

This series of four talks will explore key changes in Britain from 1914 to 1924. We'll begin with the reasons for Britain's entry into World War I, followed by the war's impacts on society, politics, and the economy. We'll also examine the 1916 Easter Rising to understand Britain’s complex relationship with Ireland. Finally, we’ll discuss the 1923 election and the first Labour government in 1924. No prior knowledge is needed, and questions will encourage discussion on this intriguing period of history.

This course aims to introduce students to the art of portraiture in a relaxed and supportive environment. You will learn how to draw the face, neck and features correctly and then move on to painting. The class is ideal for beginners who would like to learn new skills or improve old ones. Using a simplified, structured, and step-by-step approach, students will learn the skills and techniques necessary to be able to paint portraits. Creating portraits that have a convincing sense of shape, form and colour is difficult to do, and this course looks at various techniques used to do this. By learning to interpret the human head into its abstract elements (shape, tone & colour), you will gain confidence in how to paint portraits in a structured and methodical manner.

If you would like to start writing non-fiction articles, blogs, short pieces or news stories, this course is for you. This practical course gives you a short introduction to journalism and aims to help you to write clear, interesting and balanced reports in news, blog or feature formats. It will also help you to develop the skills to identify and obtain relevant and newsworthy items from written or verbal sources. It will introduce you briefly to some of the legal and ethical considerations faced by journalists.

This which go bump in the night, are some to quick to dismiss anything ghostly or supernatural as ‘horror’? Films which feature haunting and/or the supernatural so often rely on the fear of what might happen, mystery and suspense. As Alfred Hitchcock once said, ‘there is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it’. We examine of this is also true of a good ghostly tale on film, like a thriller keeping the audience wondering what might happen? How do they do this, what techniques do they use? Films such as 1961’s The Innocents are noted as classics of the genre, adapted from a literary source, with memorable shots and scenes it still has the power to unnerve but has some of this been lost as other films copy its template? Ealing’s Dead of Night is now an influential cult classic but an oddball for the studio so noted for its comedy, what does it indicate about immediate post-war Britain? Rosemary’s Baby is now noted as pushing the genre forward into the modern age, from external terrors to fears lurking within society itself, 2001’s The Others attracted a broad audience, with fleeting nods to The Innocents, how did it re-energise the ghost story on film for the 21st Century. Whilst Ghost Story serves as an example of an all too often curio worth seeing for every fan of a ghostly tale. The Innocents (1961), Dead of Night (1945), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Ghost Story (1974), The Others (2001).

Welcome to the, ‘Reading Skills course’. This course is designed for ESOL Entry 2/3 students to improve their English reading abilities. Over the course, students will practice reading various texts, including stories, articles, and everyday materials like menus and signs. The course focuses on understanding vocabulary, sentence structure, and main ideas. Interactive activities include reading aloud, group discussions, and comprehension exercises. By the end of the course, students will have enhanced their reading skills, built a stronger vocabulary, and gained confidence in understanding and enjoying English texts.