About ABE
About Us
ABE is part of West Lothian Council’s Community Learning and Development service. Our Aim is to work with anyone over the age of 16 who can set goals to improve literacy and numeracy skills or who is experiencing hearing loss and wishes to learn lip-reading skills.
Our Service Standards
We Will:
1. Treat you with respect, courtesy, fairness and good manners.
2. Ensure that a member of staff gives their name when they greet you.
3. Answer telephone calls within 3 rings (answer-phone available outside office hours).
4. If you leave a message we will get back to you within one working day.
5. Give you a chance to talk about your learning within 1 week of your enquiry.
6. Confirm where and when you can join a group within 2 weeks of your interview.
7. You will have the opportunity to consider progression routes.
8. Ask you about the quality of the service you receive and any improvements you would like to see.
9. Keep accessible records of how well we do against these standards.
10. Tell you how well we do and what improvements we are making.
ABE Contacts
Every ABE worker supports a whole range of students, right across the service. As you would expect, each has their special areas of interest and responsibility.
Click on staff members below for more information on what these are.
Staff Details
Elaine Nisbet
ABE Organiser
Elaine.Nisbet@wled.org.uk
Elaine is 'The Boss'!
As such, she is responsible for making sure 'everything' runs smoothly. She would say that she 'tries to pull it all together', so that we are a user-friendly, accessible service.
She witnesses to her passion for Fair Trade through her conspicuous chocolate consumption!
Margaret Dickinson
ABE Tutor Organiser
Margaret.Dickinson@wled.org.uk
Margaret is 'Jack of All Trades, Master of None'. Her remit includes being part of the Management Team, tutoring groups and anything else 'The Boss', oops the Organiser, asks her to do! Margaret's main responsibility is training: development and delivery of the inhouse Training Pathway in addition to external accredited certification.
She disnae like havin' her photae took! (Quite right too. If I had purple horns like that, I wouldn't want it tooken either!)
Alison Nicol
ABE Tutor Organiser
Alison.Nicol@wled.org.uk
As part of the management team, Alison has responsibility for Health and Safety. She reckons that there are far too many forms, and not enough firefighters… But maybe a few more false alarms would solve that!
Margaret Borosch
ABE Development Worker
Margaret.Borosch@wled.org.uk
Margaret has a heart for ensuring that the views of students are heard and acted upon. As a result, she is always thinking of new ways to get students and staff involved in consultation.
Margaret has a special interest in supporting access to ABE for people with mental health and learning difficulties.
Maureen Dunsmore
ABE Development Worker
Maureen.Dunsmore@wled.org.uk
Maureen loves supporting women in a range of areas, and is very gifted at understanding their individual needs. She has a passion to see people realise their dreams. One of the many ways she has helped this to happen has been through the crèche training programme.
She especially enjoys matching folders and straight lines.
Alison Mann
ABE Development Worker
Alison.Mann@wled.org.uk
Alison works mainly with young people, helping them with driving theory, managing money and preparing for work.
When looking for new ways to keep young people learning Alison will run short term projects based around young people's interests from art to comic making.
Marion Phillips
ABE Development Worker
marion.phillips@wled.org.uk
One of Marion's roles is to work alongside FABE, the 'body' that represents our students. This year, they are planning a number of developments. She has a particular
interest in helping students discover and develop their creative interests. In the past, she has used art, theatre and poetry to develop storytelling and literacy.
We are looking forward to Strictly Come Spelling, a play/DVD developed from the rhyming script written by the book club – to be premiered early 2008.
Jenny Reekie
ABE Development Worker
Jenny.Reekie@wled.org.uk
This year, Jenny will be looking at using practical and fun ways to help with numeracy learning. She enjoys working with multimedia equipment, which gives her students an opportunity for hands on learning.
Janice Davidson
Admin Assistant
Janice.Davidson@westlothian.gov.uk
Janice, Admin. Assistant.
General Enquiries, Email Contact, Reception -
Knows a Little Bit of Everything.
What she doesn't know, she'll find out!