A centre for alternative education that rebooted in 2022 is seeking to pitch its personal development services to the broader community to help to finance its work.

The Adult Education School in Hamilton is “convinced there is a business here”, managing director Arlene Brock said.

The AES told The Royal Gazette that its assessments had been piloted on a non-student struggling to find a career who is now on track to qualifying as a teacher in Britain and aims to bring his skills back to the island.

As the centre expands, the AES has called on its supporters to give feedback on developing new sources of revenue from its “amazingly accurate” assessments for education and life pathways.

Thaao Dill, the director of programming, highlighted the centre’s increasing roster of students taking charge of their education after decades of frustration — and its growth into new areas of service.

A donor has enabled the AES to offer clinical evaluations for learning challenges such as suspected dyslexia that affect “a small but meaningful subset of our learners”, he said.

“The problem is getting the diagnosis. We have very gratefully received a generous donation to underwrite the costs of psychoeducational assessment.

“As far as I’m aware, it’s a first for the adult-learning space on the island. We should be starting before the end of this month.”

Forced to close by the pandemic, the AES reopened in September 2022 with nine students and one tutor.

It had 78 registered students as of last week, with Mr Dill and pathway co-ordinator Tim Smith working to keep learners engaged.

Mr Dill added: “What this assessment does is go through each person’s personality.

“Analysis can help them re-evaluate their goals and help people to rediscover their sense of themselves and their future.”

He said that the member of the community who came for career goal analysis had identified “the most perfect career path — in their own words, they are more inspired by the future than ever”.

The AES hopes to work with other helping agencies, Ms Brock said, but potentially with employers to assist in workplace issues, as well as with charities, government departments or parents looking to help their children with readiness for college or a career.

Mr Dill said: “The goal is to remove the anxiety and aimlessness that can be an intrinsic part of being a young person.”

The centre also plans to offer a fresh round of workshops this spring, following on their popularity last year, with topics ranging from healthcare to parenting boys and building an online streaming business. The charge per workshop will be capped at $25.

Ms Brock and Mr Dill credited the centre’s “extraordinary” growth to its tutors, now totalling six.

Mr Dill said: “We have been incredibly lucky to put together a team of master tutors, all very different people with a deep range of expertise.

“All share the characteristic that sits at the heart of our model, which is their commitment to empathy.

“Folks that end up in our space have typically had some kind of trauma.”

He said one new student who joined the AES this year had been out of the education system for “the better part of three decades” and hoped to earn his GED — but had been left “deeply insecure” by bad experiences.

Mr Dill explained: “Our team have been able to emphasise that despite this feeling being emotionally rational, it isn’t practically rational.

“We have been able to provide that help to him. Once you know you’re capable of more than you realise, you can do it.”

Mr Dill identified the ultimate goal of the school as delivering self-empowerment.

“A perfect distillation of the work we want to do is solve problems and help people make progress.”

• The Adult Education School welcomes all aged 16 and up wishing to re-engage with their educational goals. It can be reached by e-mailing aesbda@gmail.com or calling 705-6677