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Father-of-two, Tony Dales volunteers at his children's school in Castleford. He left school at 16 with few qualifications and joined the Navy. He is now starting on a new career as a result of joining a local WEA course.

"I left the Navy after 16 years in 2000 and ended up working nights in a warehouse", explains Tony. "When Joshua started school I really wanted to get involved and did a WEA course and went into school one day a week. I really enjoyed it and now I am doing the Helping in Schools course. I just get so much out of volunteering in the school."

"I get immense satisfaction out of working in the school. The boys really love it, although I don't see them all the time. "

Tony is determined to have a new career and has begun to train for becoming a teacher.

The credit-based WEA Helping in Schools course is broken down into a number of different units and you obtain credits for each unit that you complete successfully. It's a flexible way of learning, which can be of particular help to people who may have found school difficult or whose circumstances mean they would find a long course challenging.

The first Helping in Schools course ran in 1994 in West Yorkshire. Since then 15,000 people have enrolled and it has spread across the country covering 83 local authorities.

For more information on the Helping in Schools course, visit http://www.yh.wea.org.uk or telephone 0113 245 3304.