WEA LEADERSHIP TEAM BOLSTERED BY NEW APPOINTMENTS

The WEA (@WEAadulted), a leading education charity, has announced the appointment of two new members to the leadership team.

Chris Morgan has been appointed as the Director of Education, Employability and Skills.

Chris has nearly 20 years of extensive experience in education working primarily in the charity and independent sectors delivering skills programmes to learners left behind by mainstream education routes. The scope of this new role is to grow WEA’s reach and impact in employment and skills and develop an enhanced and innovative curriculum that meets the needs of learners, regardless of their starting points or prior experience of mainstream education.

It will allow the WEA to foster relationships with employers and create different pathways into work so supporting local and regional communities. Chris will take up the position in the coming weeks after successfully working as WEA’s Head of Region for Yorkshire and Humber since September 2020.

Prior to this, Chris worked for Nacro for over 15 years, where he held a number of senior national roles, including Head of Contracts, Funding & Partnerships and Assistant Principal. He was involved in the delivery and management of adult learning, apprenticeships, traineeships, 16-18 programmes and award-winning and innovative employer-led activities.

Newly appointed Director of Education, Employability and Skills, Chris Morgan, said:

“As someone who has dedicated his entire career so far to education I’m honoured and delighted to have this opportunity to be part of a talented and committed team with the focus of bringing education within reach to all adult learners. A mission that is now even more important as our economy finds new ways of working and recovers from the impact of Covid-19.”

Katie Easey has been appointed Director of Education: Community Learning where she will be responsible for building on the success of the WEA’s rich and popular community based adult learning provision starting in June. She will also be managing regional and branch delivery including providing strategic direction and ensuring income targets are met as well as balancing long-term strategy improvements, medium-term development of new curriculum and services whilst maintaining robust operations.

Most importantly she will ensure that WEA’s students receive and excellent learning experience. With over 15 years of community and adult-learning experience, Katie Easey brings with her a strong skill-set an excellent reputation for relationship building and team leadership. She will be joining The WEA from Community Learning in Partnership (CLIP), a third sector independent training provider in Lincolnshire.

As Chief Executive of CLIP for the past 5 years, she was responsible for developing a full time study programme as well as a large range of community and accredited adult learning including Access to HE. Prior to CLIP she was Head of School for HE Health, Social Care and Community Studies at The Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education.  

Katie Easey said: 

“At the heart of everything I do is a fundamental belief in the power of education to transform lives, be that through building social contact, through personal growth and development, or through qualifications and employment related skills. It is this belief which has led to me to The WEA and I am very excited to be starting my journey there.”