Newton Aycliffe Youth and Community Centre is available to hire for a variety of activities such as meetings and seminars, training and educational classes, arts and crafts, dancing and exercise classes. It also regularly hosts evening youth sessions, breastfeeding café, Tai Chi and Age UK Come Eat Together Monday Carvery. Adult Learning Skills Service deliver English, Maths and I.C.T. courses in local areas – focusing on smaller classes and friendly venues to meet the needs of the local people. Courses provide opportunities for adults to improve their skills, gain new knowledge, widen their experiences, improve confidence, make new friends and improve employability prospects. We not only offer courses, but the support you need to help you progress into employment and or further education. Maths & English courses are free – and we can support you with paying for other courses. We are very proud of each and every learner that joins our courses, but the English group at Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre stood out with that extra special “something”. So much in fact that I nominated this group for an award in our annual ceremony held to coincide with National Adult Learners Week. This prestigious event is where we celebrate achievement, recognise success and reward those who have overcome, difficult barriers.
The learners were successful in the courses they chose to take and achieved great success – but on top of these won the Cultural Learner Award. Maggie Pugh, Nicky Bamber, Natasha Scott (pictured), Robert Hutchinson, Rebecca Dixon (pictured) & Chenija Mangena. Paula Foster-Short said “It’s been an amazing time working with this group and seeing them overcome challenges and achieve qualifications makes my job totally worthwhile – seeing them every Friday has been the highlight to the week!. Each learner in my classes is special to me – but this group were just “different!”, in a very positive way. They shared experiences, made memories, learnt from each other, supported each other as well as laughing and crying together; they are truly inspirational. The skills and knowledge they have gained have led to work opportunities, volunteer placements and given them the self-confidence to be able to make the move into further or higher education.” “Even after the course they are still supporting each other. They are real champions for life-long learning and for making a change for the better.
It’s very scary coming into a classroom where you don’t know anyone and have negative experiences from school or have been out of work for a long time. Each story is different but the end result for this group is the same – a terrific achievement and well done! I am very proud to have been witness to their journey. I hope their achievements and triumph over adversity will inspire many others to try a course with Adult Learning Skills Service.” NAYCC developed the working partnership with Durham County Council’s Adult Skills Learning Services in 2015, since then the groups have grown from strength to strength. Beki Metcalfe, NAYCC Centre Manager, states “We love hosting the Adult Skills classes and are very pleased to see the successes the individual students have. We grow to know and like the students, many of whom we are still in contact since they finished their courses. We always like to hear success stories ~ it makes us feel that we have contributed in some small way by having a Centre that is an aid to learning. Well done to everyone who has achieved an award, you did this, your own hard work, and for that we too are proud of you.”
