What We Are
Leicester Adult Education Service works to improve the lives of residents by working with partners to raise aspirations, build achievement and protect the most vulnerable.
We are Leicester City Council’s Adult Education Service
We are an Adult and Community Learning provider and operate a wide range of flexible, part time classes through a range of community venues and schools as well as our own venues: Leicester Adult Education College in the city centre and Bishopdale Adult Learning Hub in Beaumont Leys.
We have a clear mission to deliver an outstanding learning experience:
- Leicester Adult Education Service works to improve the lives of residents by working with partners to raise aspirations, build achievement and protect the most vulnerable.
- As a local authority provider we engage and support the most disadvantaged while remaining open to all, and provide learning opportunities enable adults to develop skills and improve wellbeing for themselves, their families and communities.
- We work with employers, our public and voluntary sector partners and other education institutions to provide a well-planned and co-ordinated curriculum to meet the changing needs of individuals and the local economy.
Most of our courses are subsidised by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and therefore we are held accountable for the quality of education we provide by Ofsted and for the quality of the Information, Advice and Guidance we provide by MATRIX.
In 2018 Ofsted graded the service Good and noted:
‘Teaching, learning and assessment continue to remain highly effective in ensuring that outcomes for all groups of learners, especially at entry level and level 1, are high… Learners rightly comment very favourably on the high quality of teaching and learning they receive and on the commitment and enthusiasm of their tutors… Your curriculum offer aligns well with the city council’s strategic four-year plan for improving skills and training and achieving a better match between the skills needs of local businesses and the provision of adult learning programmes. The curriculum includes a wide range of employability programmes run collaboratively with the Jobcentre, focused on supporting learners to re-enter the labour market. You work well to help people who have been made redundant to retrain for alternative work.’
The service successfully retained the MATRIX standard for information advice and guidance in 2021 and the assessors commented:
‘There is a particularly strong ethical framework for the delivery of IAG across the organisation and working with their partners. At a strategic level there is a strong commitment to investment in high levels of careers leadership; partnership working with shared ambitions and commitment to support through the developing Youth Employment Hub, the shaping of the new Fashion Technology Academy, supporting the Kick Start programme; and there is a clear focus on who is best served to support learners and appropriate segmentation of the adult education market.’