WMC - students
WMC - students
Working Men's College's background
Working Men's College (WMC), the oldest surviving adult education institute in Europe, was founded in 1854 and was associated with the Cooperative Movement and the Christian Socialists, stemming, from the same tradition that led later to the Worker's Educational Association. The Working Women's College, founded 10 years later in 1864, finally merged with WMC in 1967. Early supporters of both have included F D Maurice, John Stuart Mill, Tom Hughes, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Ruskin, Ford Maddox Brown, Walter de la Mare and Octavia Hill. Originally based in Red Lion Street, we have been in this listed building in Camden Town since 1905. We have continued to develop the tradition of liberal education and today the College serves the whole community, with women, unemployed and refugee students forming the majority of the student body. We have grown rapidly in recent years but are still small enough to know all our students and to respond to their individual needs. WMC was designated as a Specialist Designated Institution (SDI) under the 1992 Further Education Act.
Mission
To be a learner-centred college dedicated to widening access to education for all, that will provide opportunities for lifelong learning for the diverse range of London adults who may not be able to study full time, particularly those who have missed out on their initial education and in particular those who lack skills in the areas of language, literacy and numeracy.
Objectives
Working Men's College Aims to:
- Provide an outstanding education for adults, in which all learners can achieve their personal, educational and training goals and maximise their potential.
- Offer a modern, comfortable and secure environment for learning which provides learners with the facilities they need to study effectively.
- Provide opportunities for local residents to improve their language, literacy and numeracy skills in a number of contexts including work to enable them to access services more effectively, gain employment and improve their standard of living.
- Provide a broad range of learning activities which support learners’ personal development and enhance their social, linguistic, technical and artistic skills.
- Provide an inclusive learning environment with all the necessary support to promote equality of opportunity, openness, freedom of expression and social responsibility and remove barriers to participation, particularly for those who have failed to benefit from educational opportunities in the past.
- Meet the needs of the local communities, with programmes which promote community cohesion and help to address the problems of disadvantage and deprivation.
- Work in partnership with the London Borough of Camden, other colleges and providers, local voluntary organisations, funding bodies and others who share our goals.
- Work with local employers to ensure local people can meet the demands of a skills-based economy, and work with local people to ensure they can get the skills needed to get local jobs.
- Recognise the contribution of its staff and associates in fulfilling its aims.
- Celebrate its unique history, while finding new ways to pursue its founders’ aims into the 21st century.
