There is some change taking place. Some organisations are only taking on contract staff for periods of up to three years and it is in their interest that the staff not only learn the skills necessary for the job while they are with them, but also gain the skills to help them obtain other employment when their contracts expire.

However, the emphasis of Lifelong Learning and the University for Industry is on learner centred learning, with guidance, advice and tutor support. The experiments that have taken place have proved quite successful, but this has been where there have been learning centres and good marketing.

A project in the North East 'Remote Learning for Rural Business' did not take off as expected, although the learner was visited by a tutor from the college, who also installed the modem and the appropriate software. It was not until an architect, who had office space to spare, offered to be a centre for the village / town and marketed it locally, that the project took off. This does tend to show that learning is a social experience.

Yet again with these projects they have picked up those people who are motivated to learn something of their own volition. Often learning about computers, in an attempt to catch up with their children, or learning about an interest or hobby.

It is those who are:

• disaffected learners who had a bad experience in secondary education;
• in areas of high unemployment, who do not see the prospect of getting work, even if they do take up learning again; and
• needing to re-skill because their current jobs are disappearing,