WEA is short for the Workers' Educational Association, a British organisation that has been running classes for adults since 1903. The key word is 'workers'. It was started for people who left school early and went to work — coal miners, factory workers, shop workers — who still wanted to study history, literature, economics, art. The classes are usually part-time, in the evening or during the day in a local hall, library or community centre, and they are cheap or free. You do not need any qualifications to join, and you usually do not get a degree at the end; you go because you want to learn. It is still running today, and now many students are older people, parents at home, or people who want to return to study after a long gap. British people who know the name often feel warmly about it — it belongs to a tradition of ordinary working people educating themselves and each other. In writing you may see the full name first and 'the WEA' after. Note that people say the three letters separately, W-E-A, not as one word. Careful: outside Britain the same three letters mean other things (a record company, for example), so this meaning belongs to a British context.