I remember fondly one of my first Learning at Work events at Balham Job Centre Plus hosted by one of the most vivacious union learning reps (ULRs) I have had the pleasure to work with. She had put on a fantastic day of events to include salsa dancing, massages, manicures. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to be able to bring to life our prospectuses with quite the same passion and panache.

Fortunately, one of the staff had already studied with Birkbeck, starting on our Certificate of Higher Education, progressing to his BA History and now studying a PhD. He took full advantage of the tannoy system and encouraged his colleagues to come and speak to me, which they did.

It never surprises me to learn that two fifths of our first-year students have heard about Birkbeck from word of mouth and over 92% of our students recommend us to their friends and family. I believe it’s because we genuinely know how to support adults who want to return to study no matter their motivation – career change, career progression coupled with a real desire to develop personally.

But it wasn’t just the staff who learned something that day, I realised Birkbeck needed to work much harder at providing adults in the workplace with a flavour of higher education which led to the Well-Being at Work and Get Started initiatives.

The Well Being project offers a series of workshops exploring the "Big Seven" of Well-being identified by Professor Richard Layard:

• family and friends,
• community,
• health,
• work,
• financial situation,
• autonomy and
• belief systems.

The project pools the different skill sets and experiences of academics working at the cutting edge of research. Over the past three years, we have delivered this with HMRC, Southwark Council, Brent Children’s Services and of course, Balham Job Centre Plus. 

But we realised that, whilst this might have helped to ignite interest in different subjects, it still didn’t really help provide the practical information people needed to get started. So, we decided to implement a monthly workshop, which provides information on fees and funding, advice on how to prepare for university study and practical tips and hints on making a successful application.

Essentially, this means providing adults with the information and advice given readily to young school leavers. Again, this has proven really effective to adult returners with 50% of attendees going on to apply, equating to approximately 300 learners each year.
But success isn’t just about how many people sign up for a Birkbeck course after we’ve met with them. We understand there is too much to consider to take this decision lightly.

This is why it is important to make long lasting and meaningful partnerships. It is vital we keep working with ULRs and visit the same workplaces each year so people understand Birkbeck will always be an option for them. Just don’t forget to invite us.

If you want to find out more about Birkbeck’s courses come along to the Open Evening on 25 June from 4pm until 7.30pm, at the Royal National Hotel, London.