Jean worked in Community Education, women’s education in Suffolk, making connections with services in Norfolk.
I’m now retired, and a volunteer at the Suffolk Record Office. I’ve lived in Ipswich for nearly 40 years, I did my MA in Women’s Studies in Sheffield, when I was working as a social worker and, following a move to Suffolk, became employed by the County Council in both social services and community education.
Women’s education services
Women’s education workers worked part-time across the county setting up learning opportunities for those who may have missed out on education. Over time these grew into pathways for women, if they wanted, to gain accreditation for their work and to access further or higher education.
I did that work alongside social work, I was interested in how the two approaches could impact on family life, and women’s lives in particular.
In 1999 Suffolk was successful in joining the European Social Fund (ESF) Employment Programme aimed at redressing inequalities experienced by women cross partner EU countries.
Specifically the Suffolk bid was to develop accredited courses to help women who had missed out on education and employment opportunities get a foothold into work.
Alongside IT and other first step courses we developed an NVQ course in Community Development to recognise the unpaid work women were often undertaking in their local communities, We shared our innovative approaches with our four ESF Programme partners from Greece, Scotland, Spain and Denmark. We were also able to learn from them about the importance of child care for women and first step learning. Our contribution was accrediting what knowledge and skills women already had through being in their communities, through their roles as family carers, and so on.
Making connections at Wensum Lodge
As I remember Wensum Lodge had a community, grassroots, campaigning approach to it. The WEA ran courses there, It had a reception area, and was then a bit of a warren… it had a fun, inclusive learning atmosphere that seemed to compensate for any problems with the building.
We held a lot of meetings at Wensum Lodge. Usually, it was a regional meeting of some kind to do with women’s education. It was the place where ideas were exchanged, and women’s issues discussed. We didn’t have anything quite like that in Suffolk, so it was always a pleasure to go to Wensum Lodge. It felt like you could have been going to a centre in London. It was go ahead, innovative, friendly, and had a great café. There was always a sense of activism and lots of things going on, educationally but also socially.
We also used to meet with the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) there, at conferences and meetings. As a first-step provision for women’s learning, the WEA was also represented in Suffolk, so we worked together so that we didn’t duplicate efforts.
We held regional meetings of the ESF Partnership there, and were encouraged to connect with other projects aimed at women. There was another EU initiative in Norfolk – the Women’s Employment, Education and Training Unit (WEETU). Their focus was on women obtaining credit to start their own micro businesses with capital that often they couldn’t get from banks. While they had their own partners across Europe, we were also wanting to learn from each other.
That lasted until about 2003, and we then mainstreamed our courses in Suffolk. Some of them are still going today, but a lot of local authority adult education funding ceased or became focused on ‘Skills for Life’ curriculum so the offer to women in the community is now much less flexible.
I feel real regret that Wensum Lodge has gone. I think it’s such a loss.
What we did during that period is still as relevant now. That’s what’s so frustrating- it’s still needed because women must find it really hard to take up learning again.
We know that inequalities still persist for women, the importance of providing childcare to support women’s learning has gone.
As adult education services contracted, I decided to return to social work, taking with me the knowledge and skills acquired from community education.
Jean Driscoll (b.1953) talking to Susan Steward at the Hold Suffolk Archive Centre, Ipswich on 20 January 2025. @2025 WISEArchive. All Rights Reserved.
