A local branch of a national adult learning association is seeking new members after numbers attending its classes hit an all time low.

The Mill Hill branch of the Workers Education Association (WEA), the UK’s largest voluntary-sector provider of adult education, offers part-time day and evening classes for people wishing to broaden their knowledge and learn new skills.

Ten years ago, the Mill Hill organisation, which meets at the Eversfield Centre in Mill Hill, ran 12 classes a week in subjects as diverse as literature, drama, archaeology, gardening, art history and practical art and music. Students came from different backgrounds, many of whom were working or had previously missed out on education.

Now membership has dropped by 60 percent. The organisation can only afford to hold two different classes a week and most of its members are retired.

Branch Chair Moira Eagle said: “We need more young people to attend classes to guarantee our future.

“Joining an organisation like the WEA improves people’s lives because it helps them think and use their minds, enables them to meet like-minded people and gives them a nationally recognised qualification that will look good on the CV and perhaps lead to other things.”

Founded in 1903 to provide education for working people, the WEA employs only professionally qualified tutors. Some courses are designed for people simply wishing to learn for pleasure, while others lead to a qualification accredited by Birkbeck College, University of London.

After Easter, the Mill Hill WEA will run classes in the poetry of WB Yeats, the plays of Joseph Conrad and Eugene O’Neill and North American Archaeology.

To find out more about the Mill Hill WEA and future classes call Ms Eagle on 020 8959 1230.