A learning center is a facility that provides academic or other educational services. Services may include full courses, demonstrations from professional community members (e.g., fire prevention), day care activities and tutoring. Although most individuals associate learning centers with intellectual gain, learning centers also may provide other services such as speech therapy or Braille reading that help individuals overcome physical obstacles.
Some learning centers, such as schools, have entire buildings designated for service. The number of services provided at these larger institutions tends to be greater, and there may be multiple locations or branches for the center. More often, the learning centers are part of larger facilities. For example, a university may offer a learning center specifically for children with hearing disabilities so that sign language and audiology students may have hands-on experience with children. Some learning centers have no physical address at all and are completely online.
Learning centers differ from most schools in that they often are created with a few core services in mind. For example, some learning centers are designed for businesspeople and therefore offer only career services. Others specialize in services for a specific age group, such as preschool-aged children or seniors.
Patrons of learning centers are of all ages, races and religions and include both males and females. However, the services offered by the center may impact the type of individual who becomes a patron. For example, learning centers that are completely online may appeal more to the technologically savvy, while those that provide after-school programs may find favor with single parents or working moms and dads.
Learning centers are needed whenever an educational need is not met in a community by other facilities (including schools). Thus, their purpose largely is to supplement existing institutions rather than to compete with them. Many learning centers are founded with the expressed purpose of fostering a sense of community in an area, especially in poor neighborhoods that have problems with crime and lack of income.