Learn Harrow has £1.4m from City Hall for care, business and school courses. The booking assessments are free and start on 1 September in Kenton.
Funded places on qualification courses in childcare, adult care, business admin and classroom support open in Harrow next week, paid for by £1.4m the council’s adult education service has won from City Hall.
You have to book a free assessment first, and the first one runs on Tuesday 1 September, an evening session from 6pm to 8.30pm. Twenty-five assessment slots are published between then and 18 December. All are listed at £0.00 and all are held at the Kenton Learning Centre, 86 Glebe Avenue, Kenton HA3 9LF (Learn Harrow).
What the money buys
Harrow Council announced the funding on 25 August. It says Learn Harrow secured £1.4m for a programme called London Talent Pathways, covering three areas (Harrow Council):
- health and social care, including childcare and adult care
- finance and professional business services, including business administration and customer service
- education, including courses that prepare people to work in schools
The council says people who finish their training get “access to guaranteed job interviews with employer partners”. Qualifications run from Level 1 upwards, and evening courses are available for people already in work.
Councillor Chetna Halai, Cabinet Member for Business and Property, said the programme “will help people gain the skills, qualifications and confidence to move into work, progress in their careers and access real opportunities with local employers”.
London Talent Pathways is a Greater London Authority fund, not a Harrow one. It combines the Adult Skills Fund and Free Courses for Jobs money, and awards between £200,000 and £1.2m per academic year to each provider. Applications closed at 5pm on Monday 8 December 2025, and only UK-registered learning providers with a site in London could apply (Greater London Authority). It sits inside the Mayor’s Inclusive Talent Strategy, announced on 23 October 2025 with £147.2m in total, of which £97.5m is the Talent Pathway fund aimed at 21,000 Londoners (London City Hall).
The courses on offer
The vocational pathway page lists eight qualifications you can be assessed for:
| Course | Level |
|---|---|
| Introduction to Health, Social Care and Children’s and Young People’s Settings | 1 |
| Certificate in Health and Social Care | 2 |
| Diploma in Adult Care | 3 |
| Certificate in Caring for Children | 1 |
| Diploma Early Years Practitioner (licence to practise) | 2 |
| Diploma Early Years Educator (licence to practise) | 3 |
| Award in Preparing to Work in Schools | 1 |
| Certificate in Supporting Teaching and Learning | 2 |
Two of them carry a placement requirement that is easy to miss. The Level 2 Early Years Practitioner and the Level 2 Certificate in Supporting Teaching and Learning each need 250 placement hours, about six hours a week. The Level 3 Early Years Educator needs 350 hours, about 12 hours a week. An assessor carries out workplace observations on all three.
Who can enrol, and what it costs
Learn Harrow’s published rules are specific.
- Most people aged 19 or over can join, wherever they live and whether or not they are working.
- Funded places are not available to full-time students, people here on a visitor, student, graduate or sponsored work visa, or anyone whose residence permit prohibits study. They can still take a course by paying the full fee.
- A concession applies if you get means-tested benefits, are a jobseeker, or earn less than £27,008 a year living in London. Concessions must be paid for in person at Kenton Learning Centre, with recent evidence of benefits or income. On a concession you may enrol on one adult learning and one family learning course at a time.
- A crèche is available at Kenton Learning Centre for children aged six months to four years, for the hours you are in class. It needs a signed agreement form before the course starts and 80 per cent attendance.
Full terms are on the Learn Harrow FAQ.
What it means for you
You cannot enrol straight onto these courses. Every accredited course at Learn Harrow needs an initial assessment and interview at the start of each term, which checks your reading and writing and places you at the right level. Booking that assessment is the first step, and it is free.
The September dates are the ones that matter if you want to start this term:
- Tue 1 September, 18:00 to 20:30
- Wed 2 September, 18:00 to 20:30
- Mon 7 September, 12:30 to 14:30
- Tue 8 September, 10:00 to 12:00 and 12:30 to 14:30
- Wed 9 September, 10:00 to 12:00 and 12:30 to 14:30
- Thu 10 September, 10:00 to 12:00 and 12:30 to 14:30
- Fri 11, 18 and 25 September, 10:00 to 12:00 and 12:30 to 14:30
After that the slots thin out to Friday mornings only, 10:00 to 12:00, on 2, 9, 16 and 23 October and 6 and 20 November. The last two dates, Friday 4 and Friday 18 December, have a morning and an afternoon session again.
The council’s announcement does not say the courses themselves are free. Learn Harrow publishes a fee against each course, and whether you pay it depends on the eligibility and concession rules set out above.
Book through the Learn Harrow course page, email learnharrow@harrow.gov.uk or call 020 8204 3567.
One caution before you commit. The council’s announcement promises guaranteed interviews with employer partners, but it does not name the employers, say how many interviews are on offer, or say over what period the £1.4m is spent. Worth asking at the assessment interview.
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