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You can also find information about courses at your local library or adult education centres. These websites are useful places to start looking for advice and help :
Learndirect
For impartial information and advice on
courses (including funding) and careers to suit you call the
learndirect advice line free on 0800 100 900.
Direct Gov
To find a course and for information about financial support, training and workplace learning.
www.direct.gov.uk/AdultLearning
Next Step
Funded
by the Learning and Skills Council, nextstep offers face-to-face
information and advice services to adults over 20 years of age wanting
to learn new skills, retrain or gain new qualifications and improve
their career prospects.
There are plenty of ways you can access a course. Some of the following have been specifically designed for carers.
City & Guilds has developed the first qualification of its kind, designed to help carers build confidence and take next steps into new opportunities. Learning for Living is an online resource which carers can use anywhere they have access to the internet. Courses are run from centres but you can register your interest on the home page and find details of City & Guilds Centres who will be running the programme.
Many carers have successfully completed Open University courses as they can be fitted around your caring responsibilities. The Open University offers concessions on its courses to people on benefits and is developing a guide for carers.
The National Extension College (NEC) was set up as a charity to help people of all ages fit learning into their lives. They provide distance learning courses and have a track record of supporting carers through projects that provide courses and support directly to carers.
The Carers into Education project offers reduced fees on distance learning courses to carers over the age of 16 years living in the Eastern region and the Midlands. These carers can now access National Extension College courses at reduced fees. This includes GCSEs, AS and A2 levels, vocational subjects such as book-keeping or childcare, as well as creative writing, counselling and study skills. Carers can study where and when they choose, working flexibly to fit around their caring responsibilities.
