Northumberland College Extends Free Course Offer for Adults

Northumberland College has introduced a number of new part-time courses for adults.

Free courses include autism awareness, food safety and mental health awareness.

In addition, a range of online learning courses in health, social and childcare have been added to the College’s offer. These courses are free, although they do incur a £25 enrolment fee.

The new online courses, which include understanding autism, dementia care, mental health problems and the principles of care planning, mean individuals may study from home, at their own pace and around personal commitments.

Northumberland College’s Academy Head of Children and Adult Workforce, Jillian Rees, said: “For many, attending college is not easy due to work or childcare commitments, so we are pleased to be able to offer a new range of online courses.

“These courses are perfect for continuous professional development for those working within the education, childcare or health and social care sectors and can be completed at home and in your own time.”

The College is also continuing to offer a programme of free short courses and workshops for those in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance aimed at helping people into work. Those courses include CV and interview support, computers for beginners and constriction site CSCS.

The College’s January to March free course offer generated over a thousand expressions of interest from local adults.

Paula Nelson, from Dinnington, enrolled on to a free plastering course to develop her DIY skills for home improvements. She said: “I love the plastering course at Northumberland College. The tutors are fantastic and I feel so comfortable attending the sessions.

“The facilities are excellent and I am thoroughly enjoying myself on a course I never thought I once would. It is completely different to anything else that I’ve done before and it’s fantastic that I’ve had the chance to give it a try for free.

“The course is a perfect confidence booster for beginners of all ages just like myself and I would thoroughly recommend it.”

The College’s Leisure Learning offering, which sees courses delivered from community venues across the county, is testament to a commitment to offer courses for all, with hundreds of part-time courses from as little as £20. These courses are aimed at anyone wishing to start a new hobby, learn a new skill or looking to meet new friends.

Leisure Learning courses include summer floristry, vegetarian cooking, local archaeology, website design and dressmaking. Venues include Allendale Forge Studios, Breamish Hall in Powburn and the Fourways Centre, Amble.

The College recently invested more than £14m across its campuses to further improve realistic training environments including new engineering and automotive centre, construction workshops, professional salon, restaurant, kitchens and learning resource centre and new STEM centre for science, engineering and digital creative media.

Anyone wishing to find out more should visit an open event at the college, contact the Help Hub on 01670 841 200 or access the college website at  www.northumberland.ac.uk.