1.16 As a first step towards the UfI, we are taking action to overcome one of the main barriers to learning - getting easy access to information about what is available. Learning Direct - a new national telephone helpline - offers advice both on how to get started and on courses to suit individual needs.

Learning Direct

call freephone 0800 100 900

9am-9pm Monday to Friday and 9am-12 noon Saturday

1.17 Learning Direct is:

• free all over the UK. 0800 100 900 serves England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland;

• up-to-date, high quality and accurate;

• confidential - it will not pass on call details;

• impartial - it is there to help the caller, not to push a product or promote a particular institution or to sell anything; and

• staffed by experienced advisors.

1.18 Learning Direct is for everyone - for people in work or out of work, professionals, skilled, unskilled, male, female - in fact for anyone over 18 years old. It is particularly designed to help people who find it difficult to access learning, or just do not know how. There are special arrangements for people with additional needs: for example, a minicom for people with a hearing impairment and a Braille facility for people who are visually impaired.

1.19 Learning Direct can refer people to local advice services, adult education, further and higher education, and private providers. It also links up with careers guidance at local level, and with the advice offered to individuals by TECs, local education authorities (LEAs), the Youth Service and the Employment Service.

1.20 Employers can benefit too. Learning Direct can advise them and give them information about qualifications, training or development for their employees. Learning Direct can also offer some help to organisations which advise others, for example, libraries and Citizens' Advice Bureaux.

1.21 Learning Direct will become the UfI information and advice service when the UfI opens for business.