Victoria Institute

The Victoria Institute lies at the heart of Caton adjoining the immaculate War Memorial garden.

The Victoria Institute is a very popular meeting place for our rural community of villages and hosts a wide range of activities and events including Line, Square, Sequence and Country Dancing, Badminton, Parent and Toddlers, Women's Institute, Dancing Lessons, Leisure, Friendship and Senior Citizens Clubs, Indoor Bowls, IT drop-ins, Gardening and Cactus Clubs, Step Class, Self Defence and Adult Education classes including Tai Chi (see 'regulars'). The Institute also hosts parties for old and young and special celebrations, and a variety of one off events such as shows. We are always looking for new activites to enrich our village life!

Selling Skills – Free Course

-   Are you self employed and wish to increase your selling skills?

-   Or do you want to increase your employability skills?

-   Would you like to learn more about selling in today’s very competitive marketplace?

Bay Business, who have already run successful self employment workshops at the Institute, will be running an NVQ3 course in Sales at the Institute on Wednesday evenings, starting mid April.  The course runs for 10 weeks and is FREE.  Interested?  Please ring Judy or Liz on 01524 771733 for more details or to book your place, or email lizhayhurst@yahoo.co.uk

Job Search

Last year we ran a course at the Institute with The Adult College, aimed at people who are looking for work.  Students can gain new qualifications such as Certificates in First Aid and Customer Care and attend workshops, including:  marketing yourself, identifying your skills, the hidden job market.  We plan to run another course which will run for 2 hrs a week for 10 weeks.  The course is free.  Interested?  Please ring Liz or Judy on 771733 (between 10 and 2)

IT courses

Our popular IT classes run as follows: Beginners IT – Friday mornings, (when people with no experience learn how to use email, search the internet and produce documents) and Improvers – Thursday mornings (for people who already have experience or have been to a Beginners class).  The courses run from 10 -12, with a break for coffee, and are very popular – comments from the last course were “friendly, patient tutors – a very enjoyable experience”.  The courses cost £65 (2 hour sessions for 10 weeks) which is extremely good value and the lecturers are used to working in rural centres with people of all ages and abilities. 

The classes soon get filled as we only take 12 people at a time.  If you want to put your name down for the next courses, starting in April, please ring Judy on 01524 771733 between 10 and 2. 

Services at the Institute

The IT Room, Drop In and Job Search services are available in the Victoria Institute, Caton.  We have a great IT facility here and many people call in for a range of services, from checking emails to photocopying, or from job search advice to simply calling in for a coffee.  If you would like to see what’s available please call in – Judy and Liz will be happy to help you.  We are open Monday to Friday 10 – 2 so call in or ring us on 771733.