How would a university for industry work? Here are three fictional beneficiaries imagined by Josh Hillman, author of a report on the university for industry from the Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-of- centre think-tank

It's good to talk

William Kane is the manager of a small firm, Young Guns, which makes toy guns. He wants to reposition his firm away from the arms trade. The bottom has dropped out of the toy-gun market and the word from retailers is that children want toy mobile phones. William, a qualified engineer, is an expert only in metal manufacture. He logs on to the UfI home page on his computer and searches for opportunities in polymer engineering. There is plenty of choice. After some on-line guidance, he puts together a package he needs. He studies distance learning units in injection moulding and advanced processing at a university. The teaching materials include textbooks, audio and video cassettes and an experiment kit. He receives tutorial support from someone who is a specialist in the techniques that interest him. He also downloads an interactive multimedia training package offered by a large plastics company. The new plastic mobile phones are a hit with parents because children cannot run up phone bills.

Tuning into Europe

Madeline Bull works in the export division of McVeg, which makes meat-substitute products. Its most popular brands, such as "Quorned Beef", are unsuccessful in the rest of Europe. She worries that her poor command of foreign languages is to blame. She enrols on a French-for-business programme, including a unit in food retail, offered through the UfI. McVeg pays for it, but Madeline studies in her spare time.

Every Saturday, she attends her local further education college for French conversation. There is also a popular programme on the UfI channel called Parlez, Parlez which Madeline tapes and watches with her son, who is doing GCSE, and her father-in-law, who is about to visit Paris. Occasionally, she e-mails a letter to her French penfriend, with whom the UfI put her in touch. After she has acquired her French diploma, she does another course, this time in international marketing. It is only then she realises that the name "Bouef de Quorn", associated with a British company, may be what is preventing export success.

Work through `play'

Thomas Walker has been unemployed since he left school five years ago. He has no qualifications and his reading and writing are poor, but his performance in the video games arcade is world-class. He sees the UfI advertised on the back of lottery tickets and on buses. An advertisement on TV offers a free-phone line, so he gives them a call. Thomas is put in touch with a UfI-kitemarked centre in a nearby library. A week later, he has an initial guidance session. He decides to try the interactive multimedia basic literacy package which can be accessed on-line at the same centre. The fee for using the package is only a fraction of the pounds 150 which the government has put in his untouched individual learning account. He needs a bit of help to get started on the computer, but after his first session, he is in the library every day. A few weeks later, he contacts his mentor, Richard Pickering, managing director of a software company. He encourages Thomas to take computing classes. In the back of his mind, Richard sees a solution to the imminent departure of one of his technical support staff.