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The mobile classroom
FORGET maths, physics and chemistry...
The new science of how to get to grips with a mobile phone is on the curriculum at a South Yorkshire college!
Lessons on texting, how to use internet facilities, phone calculators, settings and games are replacing the 'text' books on a course in Rotherham.
Several people have already signed-up for the free sessions with organisers hoping dozens more will eventually 'call in'.
The two-day courses are being funded by Single Regeneration Budget cash and are being run by Community Education Resource (Cedr), an arm of Rotherham College of Arts and Technology.
But there is a method to the apparent madness, with other courses also being offered in obscure subjects like making a table centrepiece for Christmas!
Bosses hope that those who attend, mainly low income, young, single mums and the jobless, will then be tempted back into the classroom for more beneficial courses.
It is hoped it will then lead to further training and jobs in the medium to long-term for those who sign up.
The course is aimed at residents in East Dene, Herringthorpe and East Herringthorpe - unemployment blackspots in the borough.
But the course is also aimed at those people who have never used a mobile phone before and also the elderly, who may be more reluctant accepting texting.
With Christmas on the horizon it is believed that new mobile phones will be one of the main s stocking fillers. Cedr spokeswoman Katalin Nixon said: "Young people are whizzkids with mobiles but maybe some of us need a little more help!
"We hope that people will sign up who have been out of education for a while and if they like the taste of this, then maybe they will join other courses.
"In the main there will be people attending who are unemployed, on low incomes, single parents, but also those who might just need a hand with using the mobiles.
"I don't know how to use most of the facilities and apparently many of us only use about ten percent of their capabilities."
A recent course on computer repair and services was successful with more than two dozen people attending. A follow-up course has now been organised.
In a recent national survey nearly three-quarters of adult men in the UK own mobile phones and nearly 70 per cent of adult women in the UK own one.
Traditionally, mobile phone owners have tended to be young, but the study found 81 percent of those aged between 45 and 54-year-old now own a mobile phone.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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