MOST people have seen the gremlins TV adverts that show adults terrified of returning to learning.

The adverts were part of a Government drive to improve literacy and numeracy, called the Get On campaign.

Now County Durham has been chosen to pilot a national scheme which aims to take the campaign one stage further, promising every adult without at least NVQ level two qualifications - the equivalent of a pass at GCSE - a path to learning.

It is the job of Tom Crompton, the new executive director of the Learning and Skills Council County Durham, to reverse downward trends in skills.

He, along with chairman James Ramsbotham, have the responsibility for post-16 education across the county.

National funding will pay employers between £100 and £200 to release workers who want to take part in adult learning.

Mr Crompton said: "It is true that traditionally, the County Durham area has a low baseline in terms of achievers, and the skills levels of adults is fairly low.

"What we will be doing over the next year is bringing a concerted effort of new national funding aimed at adults and their skill levels.

"We are part of a national pilot which is looking to get more and more adults achieving at least level-two skills.

"It is part of our skills initiative and what we are trying to do is give an entitlement for any adult who wants to participate in learning.

"We will have a whole array of very supportive mechanisms, including grants for individuals and grants for employers who release members of staff to go for training. Every adult who has not got a level-two qualification will be entitled to access this pilot."

A separate scheme, a review being carried out across the Learning and Skills Councils in the North-East, could change the face of college and sixth-form learning in the region.

The Star review is looking at the demand for labour in Durham, and matching post-16 learning to tackle skills shortages in industry.

Mr Crompton said: "We need to make sure we have enough skills in construction and engineering, for example. Durham has a higher than average number of engineering companies and we have to make sure they have access to enough skilled workers.

"We can't forget the importance of public sector as an employer, the health service, local authority and universities, and the range of business administration and IT skills that are needed there.

"The most important thing is that we get out of the loop where employers don't have enough skilled workers applying for jobs.

"We want employers to demand high level skills and we want youngsters and adults to achieve - if we are going to attract new business into the region we have to offer higher levels of skills.

The review will decide how funding is spent across post-16 education.

Its findings are expected to be released in January, but some issues are already becoming apparent.

"One issue that has really come to the surface, among the 700 to 800 people we have consulted, is that there is unnecessary competition between school sixth forms and colleges, which must come to an end," said Mr Crompton.

"What we must be doing in order to get the best deal for young people is offering a choice of learning, meaning that colleges, sixth forms and other learning providers need to work together.

"If it all works out we will have the learner at the centre of the education system, with the institutions fitting around the learner, rather than the learners fitting around the institutions.

"When I have addressed schools and colleges in the region it is to say collaboration is the only way forward for County Durham. We have to make learning more enticing."

One possibility is that a student could go to a sixth form college one day and the local further education college the next, to learn different aspects of the same subject.

Mr Crompton said: "We also need to increase aspirations so we get youngsters having high aspirations for themselves, and their parents to have high aspirations for their children.

"We are going to be running a major campaign come January across the North-East to try to encourage children to aspire to something other than not working at all."