With home-based study becoming increasingly popular, distance learning college SkillsTrain has come up with the top ten most common reasons why those returning to study after an education gap sign up for `home study’.
The top ten were:
- Want to improve job and career prospects
- Can’t afford to give up work / want to earn a salary at the same time as learning
- Want to earn more money
- Have family commitments to fit study around
- Need a qualification for promotion
- Want to prove to themselves they can do it
- Because they left school with no formal qualifications
- To do something useful with their time
- Want the flexibility of studying in own time, not at college
- Feel too old go back to college.
SkillsTrain, who specialise in distance learning courses for IT professionals, web designers and book-keepers, say that those who have a break after leaving school find it the most difficult to get themselves back into studying.
Myra Smallman, SkillsTrain principal, said “Older students, even if they’ve only been away from full-time education for a couple of years, find it hardest to return to studying.
“Many of them will have much greater financial commitments than when they were at school or college, they find the discipline of a college itinerary hard to stick to and a lot of our students have already started families.”
