All your education questions answered by Brian Mooney.

I am in my late thirties and have been considering returning to further education for some years. My second-level school experience was not great and even though I passed the Leaving Cert, I know now that I could have achieved so much more careerwise. I got a job in a local factory making electronic components after I left school. I am now a supervisor at the plant, but am beginning to feel that the career path I have chosen is far less challenging than I could have achieved.

I now have teenage children of my own, who are facing into the examination process. You have said in your columns that education is a lifelong process and these articles have given me great hope that I can yet achieve my full potential. I live in Boyle, Co Roscommon and cannot consider a return to full-time education. What options are open to me?

You write with great honesty. Life teaches us so much more that formal education ever does and there are tens of thousands of adults who would approach their schooling with a totally different mind frame, if they could have those years over again.

Thankfully, both the Government and educational institutes realise that motivated adults are a huge potential resource, and are actively seeking to help people like you to return to part-time education.

Checking out your options on Qualifax (www.qualifax.ie), I discover that there are two colleges listed on the national courses database, offering 19 evening and part-time programmes in Boyle. They are Abbey Community College and the Higher Education Centre in Boyle. As a mature candidate who is over 23 years old, your suitability for any further study in either college would be assessed independently of your Leaving Cert results.

Having investigated your quandary further, I discovered that the National College of Ireland offer a range of their programmes through the Roscommon Education Centre in Boyle. The college's main campus is in Dublin's IFSC, but as part of their commitment to delivering education at a time and place that suits the student, they also offer their programmes in 28 off-campus locations around the State, one of these off-campus centres is the Roscommon Higher Education Centre in Boyle.

Given your current work situation, their diploma in first line management sounds ideal. It is intended to train and educate supervisors "or those who are planning to attain the position of supervisor" to carry out their roles more effectively. This two-year part-time evening course covers a variety of areas including motivation and leadership, work and the law, ethics and management, interpersonal communication and interview skills. It is intended to allow graduates to progress their careers within their current employment. I am sure that if you inform your employer of your wish to engage in an education programme, that would enhance your skills in your current role, they may be more than happy to cover or partly cover the course fees (currently 1,210 per year).

If this course whets your appetite for further studies, you might consider moving on to their higher-level programmes and take a higher certificate in business studies, which you could join in the second and final year of the programme. Graduates of the higher certificate can progress to degree level, by completing the final year of the BA in business studies and human resource management.

You could do all of this without any disruption to your current domestic and employment situation. I am also certain that to see their dad studying alongside them as they prepare for their Junior and Leaving Cert exams, would be hugely motivational. If you are interested in any of those programmes offered on an outreach basis by the National College of Ireland, you can check them out on their website at www.ncirl.ie.