Supplementary benefit

(Photograph) - Adult learners in North Yorkshire are the guinea-pigs in a pilot project for the University for Industry launched last week. Knowledge Base, a joint venture between the University of York, College of Ripon and York, University College Scarborough and the North Yorkshire TEC, has joined forces with ICL, a global IT services company to establish a centre of excellence for lifelong learning (CELL) at the university's innovation centre. Further learning centres and access points, equipped with networked PCs and laptops, will be set up in pubs, libraries, village halls and community centres as well as a Methodist chapel and a coal mine. Many of the courses will be free or heavily subsidised and they will be accredited by a range of bodies.