Entry Level Courses

Entry Level courses are designed to be accessible and relevant to those who want to return to education. There are no qualification requirements to enrol, and many courses are either free or available for a nominal charge. They usually last for a couple of hours a week, either during the day or evening, and run for as many weeks as you need.

Most courses are run by local Further Education Colleges, or by the Local Education Authority. Courses may also be offered by colleges, community centres and schools.

Basic Skills

The Skills for Life initiative aims to improve the literacy, language and numeracy skills of 2.25 million adults by 2010. There are many ways to improve your reading, writing and maths skills. You can learn at a college, in an informal group, or even on-line. The important thing is that you learn at the time and in the place that suits you best.

Courses are often called 'Return to Study' or 'Return to Work'. When you first enrol, a tutor will discuss your requirements with you to decide which level you need to start at. They will work through a number of tasks with you, including reading, writing, maths and computing. They may also help you with going on to further study or applying for jobs.

More details on Basic Skills courses can be found in the Qualifications section.

Key Skills

Key skills courses are designed to provide learners with a range of skills to equip them for the workplace and further education. These skills include:

• Application of Number
• Communication
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

There are also a number of optional wider key skills included in this course:

• Improving own Learning and Performance
• Problem Solving
• Working with Others

The Qualifications are offered at levels 1 to 4 - for more details take a look at the information in Key Skills qualifications.

English for Speakers of Other Languages'

If you live permanently in the UK, but English is not your first language, then you can enrol on courses to help you to read, speak and write better English. These are called English for Speakers of Other Languages' (ESOL), or English as a Second Language (ESL). These courses can help students whose main language is not English to develop skills so that they can:

• become familiar with the laws and customs of the UK
• understand and participate in their new community
• access further education and training
• enter the workforce and develop their career
• support their children's education