At the age of 19 and as part of his work placement with Monmouthshire County Council, Andrew took up local learning courses which included IT and Basic Skills, aimed at improving his reading and writing.

"Not only has the learning I've done since leaving school helped me in my job, I'm also much more confident and can get up and do a presentation without much sweat, something which would have been impossible five years ago," says Andrew who later completed a Certificate in Youth and Community Work and is due to start a Diploma in the same subject next year.

"I really enjoy working with young people and feel I'm putting something back into the community by helping them. I hope I'm able to give sound advice and support them if they want to take a different learning route, like I did."

As a youth worker he is often called upon to give confidential advice to young people on all aspects of their lives and the subject of learning and gaining new skills often comes up. A strong advocate of RISE, he believes it is a new and innovative way of introducing learning into the community.

"I think RISE is an excellent idea and a great opportunity for people living in the five counties to get involved in learning without having to enter a classroom. Not everyone is cut out to learn through conventional methods and RISE gives people a chance to get the skills they want in the way they want," adds Andrew.