Rob Burton
Addysg Oedolion Cymru | Adult Learning Wales
Rob Burton is a tutor delivering youth worker qualifications for Adult Learning Wales. Rob brings life experience to his role having been made redundant in the 90’s from British Steel, he found a new direction and retrained as a youth worker, spending 16 years as a youth work manager.
He says,
I identify with my learners because I’ve gone through change, retraining, and finding new directions in my own life. I turned to what I was passionate about – supporting young people and I haven’t look back.”
For the past 7 years, Rob has delivered youth support worker qualifications to hundreds of learners across Wales, he says, “I love what I do. Tutoring is a great way to pass on information, knowledge and experience to each new generation of youth workers and volunteers.”
Many learners start with no previous qualifications, Rob focuses on building their confidence and motivation, many go on into employment and others carry on learning at higher levels and through to university.
Rob says, “I believe in each one of my learners, they all bring so much in terms of life skills and experience. It’s a privilege to work with each of them and see them achieve their potential.”
Lockdown halted the programme initially, but Rob and his team decided that they had to find a way to get some continuity to the teaching and to ensure that they continued to have a supply of qualified youth support workers.
“I knew that we needed to reshape the curriculum to suit a virtual environment. We’ve done this adaption and created more resources for online learning. I’m always looking to develop and broaden my knowledge and use this as an example to encourage learners not to look down on themselves but to build little by little from where they are.”
