INSPIRE! ADULT LEARNING AWARD WINNERS
Meet the 2026 Inspire! Adult Learning Award Winners
The Inspire! Awards are an annual celebration honouring the transformative power of education. This year’s winners have overcome challenges, seized opportunities, and achieved remarkable milestones through adult learning.
Discover their inspiring journeys as they share how education has changed their lives, boosted their confidence, and opened doors to new opportunities.
Aaron Jones – Enillydd Gwobr Sgiliau Gwaith
Aaron Jones has become an inspirational role model for neurodiversity and the transformative power of lifelong learning. He works as a part-time, senior waiter at…
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Fred Murad – Life Change Award Winner
Fred Murad, began an inspiring and life-changing journey when his wife, Claire, tragically died from sepsis in 2021. With two young children to care for,…
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Shelby Weaver-Slaughter – Essential Skills for Life Award Winner
Shelby Weaver-Slaughter is drawing on some of the challenging experiences she went through as a child to carve out an inspirational career in social care…
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Yassmein Hussein – Shared Futures Award Winner
Yassmein Hussein is making a valuable contribution to the community where she lives as she strives to improve her skills and knowledge through adult learning.…
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Daniel Mason – Learning for Better Health Award Winner
Daniel Mason has credited adult learning with pulling him through the “toughest two years of my life” and setting him on a pathway to a…
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Agri-cation – Winner of the Hywel Francis Award for Community Impact
Agri-cation, a community interest company based on a working farm near Wrexham, is delivering learning programmes that help people develop employability and life skills, improve…
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Mandy Price- Learning for Better Health Award Winner 2025
Mandy Price’s motto “Rise up and show up” could not be more apt. The day after being removed from a ventilator on her first hospital…
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Honey Jenkins – Learner Voice Award Winner
For as long as she can remember, Honey Jenkins wanted to be a builder. She is now laying the foundations for a new generation of…
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Julia Anderson – Ageing Well Award Winner
In 2009, Julia Anderson was enjoying a flourishing career in social care after more than two decades in the profession. She had worked her way…
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Javier Griffiths-Payne – Young Adult Learner Award Winner
After leaving school at the age of 14 with no formal qualifications, Javier Griffiths-Payne returned to learning a decade later. Just two years on, he…
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Georgia Miggins – Highly Commended: Young Adult Learner Award
Georgia Miggins has set her sights on becoming a music therapy teacher and being a positive role model for young people with additional learning needs…
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Hannah Rowlatt – New Welsh Speaker Award Winner
Welsh learner Hannah Rowlatt says adult learning has helped her rediscover her confidence after the Covid-19 pandemic took away her independence. Registered blind with a…
Read the storyDownload a copy of the 2026 Inspire! Adult Learning Awards profile book.
Find out more about the awards by visiting Learning and Work Institute website.
The Inspire! Adult Learning Awards are coordinated by Learning and Work Institute and sponsored by the Welsh Government, ACT, Adult Learning Wales, Agored Cymru, the National Centre for Learning Welsh and The Open University in Wales.
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