BETA believes in the furtherance of education by improving literacy and the love of learning through a commitment to local history research to benefit all. In 1991 Eileen Bithell and Eileen Walsh had a dream of an Adult Basic Skills Project that would offer education to people regardless of age or ability and, most importantly, that we would never put personal gain before the students’ needs. For
the last twenty five years we have been through some very rough patches, always through lack of funding, but we have been very fortunate in having each other to lean on. ‘God Will Provide’ became our philosophy and even when we had to take a personal loan out to pay the rent, we never gave up on our dream. Sometimes we felt that raising money for the project was like getting blood out of a stone. We regard ourselves very fortunate as we never dread coming to work in the mornings even though we have had some worrying times, both in work and our personal life. We would like to thank our families for not only putting up with us, but for all the help and support they give us and BETA, every day. During the 25 years over 1,000 adults of all abilities have attended BETA Education Project. Abilitites ranged from non-readers to those who needed help towards further education/training. Eileen and Eileen wrote an Adult reading scheme with supporting resources. BETA students have successfully moved on and many gained employment thanks to us e.g.:
5 people who are now in the Police,
8 in the Prison Service,
3 people who are now in the Armed Services,
16 women returners who are now nurses
1 man who is now a doctor
3 Volunteers became teachers
5 volunteers gained a degree
During the last 25 years BETA has employed 10 people as Sessional Tutors. BETA has trained over 20 volunteers and still has 7 volunteers who help with residential training, days out, drama, exhibitions, fundraising etc. We set up the world’s first charity internet café, BETA Netc@fe, in 2000 and have helped many people with internet Job Search and I.T. Over 50,000 individuals were given free help, but unfortunately, due to lack of funds, we had to close the café in 2016. 12 disabled adults were employed in BETA Netc@fe.
