by Lisa Ventura MBE FCIIS | 23 May 2026

There are days that stay with you, and Friday 22 May 2026 was one of them. It was a blazingly hot Friday afternoon, the first day of what is shaping up to be a proper UK heatwave. But I had the enormous honour of officially opening the newly refurbished and extended Fairfield Learning Centre in Warndon, Worcester. I left a little earlier than planned to though because I reached my limit levels with the heat, but I had a brilliant time, and I am so proud and grateful to have been asked by my lovely friend Dean Roberts-Lowe.

About Fairfield Learning Centre

Fairfield Learning Centre sits in Carnforth Drive in Warndon, one of Worcester’s more deprived communities, where adult qualification levels have historically been lower than the county average. The centre is run by Learning Services Worcestershire, part of Worcestershire County Council’s Skills & Employability service, and brings together three distinct strands of provision under one modern roof

Young adult learning for 16- to 19-year-olds (and up to 24 for those with an Education, Health and Care Plan) provides an open, relaxed and very inclusive environment for young people who have found traditional learning settings difficult. Adult Skills provision offers lifelong learning and Skills for Life courses under the brilliant strapline “It’s your turn to learn! Courses for life, for work, for you!” And tailored learning delivers specialist provision for learners with additional needs, supported by dedicated accessible spaces.

The refurbishment and extension were, in part, co-funded through the Towns Fund and Public Health and has delivered significant improvements to teaching environments, digital infrastructure and accessibility. This is not just a coat of paint and some new carpet. It is a meaningful, visible investment in a community that needed it.

I had a tour of the facilities, and I was beyond impressed with them. I particularly loved the garden where learners could plant and grow vegetables and then learn to cook with them for example. These are skills that are desperately needed and are skills for life. I also loved the beauty and hairdressing area, and I was so happy to see that they have a wellbeing room. This is a quiet space which students can use if they need to talk to one of the team, or that they can use if they are overwhelmed and need to retreat to a quiet space. It can also be used if someone needs a quiet space away from others in an exam situation, so it is just them and the exam invigilator.

I cannot emphasise enough how important a space like this is and when I saw it, I felt tears well up in my eyes because I didn’t have access to anything like this when I was at school. I literally have PTSD from when I took my GSCE’s where everyone was lined up in rows at desks in a huge hall with the invigilators walking up and down which was a massive distraction. I hated every second of it but would have had no problem taking exams if it was just me and the invigilator in a quiet space.

The Official Opening Ceremony in the Afternoon

The official ceremony ran from 2.00pm, with the delegation gathering for a tour of the refurbished facilities and time to meet learners and tutors before the formal opening. I had some lovely chats with the team about my lived experience as a neurodivergent person and how I wished a space like this was available when I was growing up, somewhere that considers the fact that my brain learns differently and processes information differently. Everyone I spoke to has a huge amount of warmth and commitment to the work of the centre and this was evident throughout my visit.

My good friend who I went to school with Dean Roberts-Lowe, who is the Skills & Employability Marketing and Communications Manager at Worcestershire County Council, had been a wonderful point of contact in the run-up to the day and looked after me and my friend Sylvia who accompanied me so well. After the ceremony, the centre opened its doors to the public from 3pm to 5pm so the wider community could come and see the new extension and gardens.

I will be honest though; the heat was something else and it was absolutely brutal. May bank holidays aside, the UK doesn’t often produce days like this (although they do seem to be getting much more frequent, likely due to climate change – make of that what you will) and this one arrived with full force. It meant I slipped away a little earlier than I had originally planned with my friend Sylvia who drove and came with me, but I stayed for everything that mattered, and I left feeling genuinely moved by what I had seen and heard.

It was also a privilege and huge honour to meet the new Mayor of Worcester, who happens to be the youngest Mayor of the city so far, The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Worcester, Cllr Tor Pingree. She was so lovely and I look forward to hopefully engaging with her more during her tenure as our Mayor. It was also lovely to catch up with Cllr Lynn Denham who I’ve known for years and Cllr Natalie McVey.

My Speech in Full

I was asked to deliver the lead speech and to formally declare the centre open. Below is the speech I delivered at the event, in full:

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for having me here today. It really is a privilege to be with you for this moment.

I want to start by telling you something about myself. I am a neurodivergent person and was diagnosed quite late in my life with autism, ADHD, dyspraxia and dyscalculia. My brain works differently, it always has, and for much of my childhood, nobody quite knew what to do with me as I just didn’t fit in no matter how hard I tried.

School was not a happy place for me. I was made to feel, consistently and repeatedly, that I was somehow inferior and less capable, less worthy, less likely to amount to anything. Teachers told me I wasn’t trying hard enough. That I lacked focus. That I wasn’t sociable enough. And when you hear those things often enough, at an age when you’re still trying to work out who you are, you start to believe them.

What I needed and what I didn’t have back then was a place like this.

A place that didn’t start from the assumption that there was one right way to learn, and that if you couldn’t do it that way, the problem was you. A place that asked, “how do we create the right conditions for this person to thrive?” rather than “why can’t thi.0s person just fit in and do as they are told?” A place where difference was not a deficit, but simply a different starting point.

I went on to build a career I am incredibly proud of, first in broadcasting and journalism, then I went on to found the Worcestershire Literary Festival in 2011, and today in cyber security. But I want to be honest with you: a lot of that happened despite my early education, not because of it. And I know I am not alone in that.

The young people and adults who come through the doors of Fairfield Learning Centre deserve better than that experience. And from everything I have heard about this place from the open, inclusive environment, the focus on the whole person, the commitment to employability and real-life skills alongside everything else, they are getting something genuinely different here.

This area of Worcester has faced real challenges. Qualification levels have historically been lower here than elsewhere in the county. Opportunities have not always been easy to reach. Support, such as the Towns Fund investment in this centre, alongside the time, energy and passion of those who brought it to life, has helped enhance what’s on offer – not just new rooms and better equipment, but a clear statement that the people who live here matter, that their futures matter, and that the barriers in their way are worth removing. I am Worcester born and bred, and I’m very proud that our wonderful city has this centre.

To the learners here today: please hear this. The fact that you are here, that you are choosing to learn, that you are showing up, believe me when I say that takes courage. Whatever anyone has told you in the past about your ability or your potential, a place like this exists because people believe in you. And so do I.

To the tutors and staff: what you do every day in creating a space of genuine welcome and belonging is more important than you may realise. For some of the people who walk through that door, you may be the first people who have ever made them feel that learning is for them. That is no small thing.

And to everyone who made this refurbishment and extension possible through the Towns Fund, through Worcestershire County Council, through Learning Services, thank you for understanding that investing in people and in the places they learn in is never wasted.

It is with very great pleasure, and with a great deal of personal feeling, that I say:

“On behalf of the County Council, the City Council, and the team here at Learning Services, Natalie, Lynn, Tor, Judy, Anna and I officially declare the future of the Fairfield Learning Centre – open!”

Why This Mattered So Much to Me

I was invited to deliver this speech as I hold an MBE for services to cyber security and to diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion, as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Information Security, because of the work I do in the cyber security industry as the Chief Executive and Founder of the AI and Cyber Security Association and Unity Group Solutions, but most importantly, because of the work I do to support those who are neurodivergent through Neuro Unity. And I meant every word of it. I am neurodivergent myself. I was diagnosed with autism, ADHD, dyspraxia and dyscalculia late in life as an adult, and my school years were very difficult indeed. I was made to feel that I wouldn’t amount to anything and was subjected to horrific bullying and abuse, which continued in every area of my life throughout my life. The kind of environment that Fairfield Learning Centre offers, one that starts from the person, not from the expectation that everyone learns the same way, is the environment I needed and did not have.

Through my work in the cyber security space and with my community Neuro Unity, I advocate for neuroinclusion and the removal of barriers that prevent neurodivergent people from thriving. Seeing a centre that has specialist accessible spaces, that supports learners with additional needs, that takes a whole-person approach to education, it aligns with everything I believe in and work towards. This is not abstract. For the learners who walk through those doors, it is genuinely life changing. I can’t wait to visit the centre again at a later date, hopefully when I can stay longer and we aren’t in the middle of a brutal heatwave.

I am also a Worcestershire person through and through, Worcester born and bred. Seeing the Towns Fund investment land in a part of the city that needs it and deserves it fills me with real civic pride.

And Finally….Thank You

To Dean Roberts-Lowe and everyone at Learning Services Worcestershire and Worcestershire County Council who made this day happen: thank you. Thank you for supporting those of us who are neurodivergent, believing in us and recognising that we are different, not difficult, and we can make a meaningful contribution to society and to the workplace.

It was an absolute honour to be your lead speaker, and I will remember it for a very long time to come. The Fairfield Learning Centre is something to be proud of, and the community it serves is very lucky to have it.