A sustainable future for short courses in Reading

It isn’t going to be easy to move to a successful “Short courses in Reading 2009/10”, and 20010/11 and 20011/12 and beyond. And you may be looking to improve your job prospects, while I want to improve my understanding of other religions. This page is to share ideas for ingredients of the solution, and also to tell each other what we each want out of short courses.

At current fee levels and current payment to tutors rooms for classes are available around Reading (mostly attached to places of worship) at rates which for most classes would leave a margin which might cover simple administration and marketing.   This might or might not fit under the umbrella of an organisation like the WEA. We have emailed the Reading Faith Forum on the subject.

The WEA did once have a Reading branch. We believe one of our current tutors (Penny Hunter) was once the organiser for the WEA in Reading, so will have relevant expertise, and some of our current tutors also work through the WEA.

Some of us have spoken informally to the WEA. They have warned us not to underestimate the expertise that would be needed (for example) to organise “an army of volunteers” to operate a set of courses of the size of the current Reading set. But perhaps only a platoon (or the odd paid employee working from home) would be needed if the sign-up and payment for courses was web-based, with students who don’t have access to the web treated as exceptions.

Lets Make a Note