About Us

The West Midlands Education and Skills One to One Programme was founded by Jim Ryan in 1986 to provide an alternative to mainstream schools and residential schooling. We pride ourselves on our unique approach, which allows learners to thrive in a programme that is completely individualised according to their needs and abilities.

Learners are referred to us for many different reasons: they may have learning difficulties which make it difficult to learn in a group environment; they may present extremely challenging behaviour which has led to exclusion from previous schools; or they may have social and emotional difficulties which have led to them withdrawing from education.

Whatever their differences, one thing that all of these learners have in common is that when they join West Midlands Education and Skills, their previous barriers to education are removed as their programme is designed around them, rather than expecting them to fit within a set structure. 

The West Midlands Education and Skills approach is holistic, considering every aspect of a learner’s life, from their home situation and past experiences to their hobbies and diets. This allows us to build good relationships and deliver learning in the best possible way.  We remove barriers to learning such as uniform, moving between classes, group learning, expectation of self-organization and chaotic lunchtime arrangements.