Jill Kennedy-McNeill (Morley College)

Senior Lecturer, Fashion and Fine Art, Morley College

Election address

I am a Senior Lecturer in fine art and fashion at Morley College and work as an hourly paid art lecturer at the Mary Ward Centre. I have been employed in Adult Education for my entire teaching career and have worked at four of the nine Institutes of Adult Learning in the UK. Morley College offers a diverse provision from short courses to council funded community courses to accredited courses in Further and Higher Education. I have worked with all these pathways, therefore I understand the varied challenges and unparallelled rewards of educating adult learners.   

Current  roles: 

Branch Secretary for Morley Waterloo UCU  

London Region Adult and Community Education Representative  

Member of UCU Left 

Why I'm standing:  

Since the  2010 cuts, we've seen over four million "lost learners" miss out on their right to an education. Despite many years of hard work by dedicated Adult and Community Education advocates, ACE has been largely misunderstood and overlooked by our union.  This summer, the Save Adult Education campaign launched, which is a positive start, but we need voices at a decision-making level with the necessary insight into Adult Education shaping this activity. With the rise of Reform threatening migrants and Adult Education, it is an increasingly urgent task of our union to champion ACE.  

I believe we need a fighting union, underpinned by member-led, grassroots organising, which foregrounds the priorities, views and objectives of the membership.

On the 19^th of November,  I was instrumental in bringing 400 passionate students and staff to the gates of Westminster to make the case for funding Adult Education. Students from as far afield as Yorkshire, Birmingham and Bristol, demonstrated the diverse learning communities represented in our sector and spoke passionately to MPs, imploring the government to stop the cuts. Many of those MPs are now making visits to Adult Education colleges and approaching relevant Ministers to highlight the issues. 

This shows what we can do when we harness the abundant energy lying dormant in our colleges and community centres across the country. This is just the beginning. 

If elected I will: 

·       Be a persistent voice on the NEC, dedicated to championing Adult Education interests from across the country 

·       Work to secure dedicated ACE representation in all national negotiations 

·       Continue to build ACE networks nationally 

·       Maintain momentum and pressure on the government and employers to reverse the cuts to Adult Education  

·       Actively support the Wages not Weapons campaign, we need education not bombs. 

·       Amplify the voices of members and reps, to stop ACE from being treated as the UCU's least important FE concern 

Adult Education transforms lives and communities; it deserves investment, not managed decline. 

Please vote for Regi Pilling FE VP and Sean Wallis HE VP