Celebrating adult education at Bradford College Community Networking Event
It was my pleasure to attend the third Bradford College Community Networking Event on Tuesday, 18 November 2025. The evening was dedicated to celebrating adult education, with a particular focus on the power of community education and its impact on individuals and our communities.
Held at the Grove Restaurant in the David Hockney building, one of the organisers said the event was, “designed to bring together passionate educators, partners, and community leaders… to strengthen our collaboration.” It certainly lived up to expectations with talks, student voice, a tour, and networking.
Celebrating success
From my previous experience of working with Bradford College, which is one of Go Higher West Yorkshire’s 13 Higher Education (HE) partners, I know what a passionate staff team it has and how well they know their students. This creates a warm welcome that fosters a real community feel.
As part of the welcome address by Javier Gomez (Head of Department, Bradford College) and Sarah Odor (Curriculum Area Manager – Community Learning Development, Bradford College), we heard about the College’s success in winning a Green Gown award. The award, which recognises sustainability innovation and leadership in post-16 education, demonstrates that HE providers can have an impact, irrespective of their size.
Embedding education in community
There was a lot of discussion about how to embed students in their local area (where they live) and education (where they study) communities. Sense of belonging and how to foster that is something I hear a lot about in my work collaborating in HE, so it was fitting to see that in community learning too.
I enjoyed hearing from Lakshmi Banner (Library Team Leader, Bradford College) and Rashid Hasan (Lecturer, Bradford College) about the ‘We Belong in Bradford’ book. This brought together adult learners to write or illustrate a book to demonstrate their English or creative skills respectively. The project was tied in with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.
It was also interesting to hear about how ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), Maths and English are a pre-cursor to potential higher levels of education for an individual. It could be that completing these courses is the springboard for accessing other qualifications.
Finally, it was great to hear a guest speaker from Bradford SkillsHouse. Shazia Qureshi (Senior Employment Services Manager) talked about having the lowest number of NEET (not in education, employment or training) not known. By having an idea of just how many NEET there are in Bradford, they are better placed to support individuals into their next steps.
Catering by students
The event was catered by students undertaking a South Asian cookery course at Bradford College. The food was delicious and having a samosa with English breakfast tea reminded me how it feels when different cultures come together in one space and you get best of both worlds.
It also reminded me that education is not siloed; employment support can help upskill the community to enable them to undertake courses and progress at any stage of their lives.
Tahera Mayat, GHWY Collaborative Outreach Officer
