h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This year I went on a New Directions Course for women and helped us recognise personal barriers either through bad learning experiences at school or poor esteem.

Apart from the much advertised government campaign on literacy, different local authorities have various broader learning programmes. Where I live they have courses which go under the Skills for Life. Apart from New Directions for Women, there are English - Prepare for GCSE, Victorian British History, Short Story Writing, Reading for Pleasure, Changing your Career, Improve your Job prospects, Business English, Memory Scrapbooks, Money Matters, Driving Ahead and all these courses are Free.

There are also Free Family Learning courses that help parents find out about how their child learns and how to get the most of learning together. These 3 week courses cover: encouraging children to read, spelling, maths, reading and writing, first aid and family activity days.

If you want to do other courses and you do not fall in the categories of mean tested benefits for paid courses it is a very good idea to ask what help there is available, in reduction of fees if you are on a low income.