Governor, National Federation of Women’s Institutes – Denman College

Jennifer Adshead is a senior volunteer for the Worker’s Education Association (WEA) serving on the Southern Region, Association and Education and Strategy Committees having retired in 2007. She still works very closely with the NFWI and Denman College, advising them on adult and further education policy and quality.

Jennifer Adshead qualified as a Home Economist in 1969 and worked as a Lecturer in Rural Home Economics at the Buckinghamshire College of Agriculture, Hampden Hall, to raise skills in cookery, preservation and traditional crafts.

In 1995 Jennifer was appointed by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) as the National Home Economics and Crafts Adviser to develop and organise the curriculum and accreditation of these subjects for the whole WI organisation.  She worked closely with City and Guilds to develop new qualifications for WI members to raise skills and recognise achievement.

Following this appointment she worked for many years as a lecturer and course tutor in Health and Social Care at Aylesbury College of Further Education. During this time she studied part-time at Oxford Brookes University and was awarded a BA (Hons) in Professional Studies in Education in 1995.

In 1997 she was promoted to the post of Director of Education and Training for the NFWI and later this role was expanded to include the management of Denman College. Whilst in this post she served on the Sustainable Development Education Panel, jointly funded by the DfES and DEfRA and was a governor of Rycotewood College in Oxfordshire.