David Cragg wrote ... > A list of courses with their contents is on > > http://web.aqa.org.uk/qual/uas/units/life.php
They are *all* PSHE/Life Skills courses and they're primarily aimed at kids with special needs (which may include physical and/or mental disability and/or social deprivation etc.). Take the p*ss if you will but these courses can make a MASSIVE difference to the kids that attend them .... maybe kids like my daughter who (in her case due to severe dyslexia - a condition which our LEA refused to acknowledge the very existence of because it would then have cost them money to provide the legally required extra support) leave school at 16 with absolutely nothing ... no qualifications, no prospects and no self esteem. As mickey mouse as they may seem, courses from the PSHE/Life Skills curriculum give young people who, for whatever reason, are in such circumstances a bit of encouragement and a hell of a lot of self respect. I'll never forget the proud look on my daughters face when she came home at the age of 17 with a certificate she'd earned by helping to redecorate the Prince's Trust Centre at the local college. For the very first time in her life (in so far as the education system is concerned) she'd been given a reward for her efforts. That bit of paper may have been worthless as far as future job prospects were concerned, but it was beyond price for the effect it had in encouraging my daughter to go forward and make a future for herself in society. (She's now a Housekeeper at the local NHS hospital and looking to work her way up to Health Care Assistant in the not too distant future ... without the PSHE courses I doubt whether that would have happened). Also note that courses like the Narrowboat one are not universally available. At any one centre for life skills there will only be a sub-set of the courses listed on the AQA web site available (a lot of those courses will be centre specific where a local instructor has spotted an opportunity to introduce the kids to something interesting and different). And remember that even the kids in the mainstream education system are often deprived of life skills - skills that in our generation(s) and earlier were learnt from the parents are all too often not learnt at all by youngsters today. Far too many kids grow up with absolutely not the first clue as to how to cook a proper meal, catch a train, write a letter, etc. and so on. I really do blame the parents for this but the education system needs to take up the slack - hopefully the next generation will do a better job when they have kids of their own (although I fear the worst on that score). Rant over! Bru
