Education Grants & Courses Cash to help with your education

If you're going to uni there are loads of hidden sources of cash available, often less about academic ability and more about things like religion, geographic location or parental occupation.

• Educational Grants Service: This service offers students, especially disadvantaged ones, guidance and advice to enable them to secure funding for education and training. Its site, part of Family Action, has a searchable database of over 30 educational trusts.

• Postgraduate Funding: There's less help available for people wanting to do a second or third degree - normal student loans aren't available, so consequently it can be difficult to fund studies. Postgrad Solutions has created an "Ultimate Postgraduate Student Funding Guide" which signposts places to find postgrad education funding.

• Scholarship search: There's some nifty search tools on the Scholarship Search and Studentcashpoint websites, including bursaries, scholarships and award funding students can apply for. You'd be surprised what's available. Some are very specific, aimed at students according to religion, location, parental occupation and many more.

• Study in Europe: If you want to study part of your degree in one of 33 participating European countries, grants are available from the British Council as part of the Erasmus scheme.

Here are some examples of grants to give you inspiration...

No-one in the UK should be put off studying because of potential student debt. Done right, it's very different to normal debt. It's only repaid when you finish studying, and if you don't earn enough when you leave (and of course one reason for studying is to enable you to earn more) you don't have to pay for it. Types of funding are as follows:

• Student loans: Most UK higher education students are eligible for a student loan.

• Maintenance grant: Students in England are also eligible for a grant of around �3,000 to help with living costs if their parents earn under �25,000. For more info and details of the grants in Wales, Scotland and NI see the guides below.

Full details in the Student Finance 2011 and Student Finance 2012 guides.

If you live in Scotland and earn less than �22,000 a year, you could get some funding from ILA Scotland.

This provides a grant of �200 towards the cost of learning something new at any approved learning provider, including learning centres, local colleges, universities and private training companies.

There may also be grants to advance your education available from your local council. As councils can offer different funding, search for details on its website or contact them to ask for more information. To find your local council�s details enter your postcode on the Gov.UK website.

The Prince�s Initiative, a charity that supports people who are out of work or facing redundancy, provides a 'Preparing to Run Your Own Business Course' for the over 50s. It's free but does require an �80 deposit which is refunded on completion.

The course runs all over the UK and includes areas such as marketing and finance. For more information, or to book a place, see the prime website or call 0845 862 2023.

If you�ve ever wanted to improve your Maths and English skills, virtually every college in the country offers free courses to help you from basic literacy and numeracy up to GCSE level. Check on the National Careers Service website or call 0800 100 900 for classes in your area.

Try this online quiz from Move On and on the BBC SkillsWise site to see if you could improve your skills.

If you�d like to learn more about using a computer, or want to introduce the internet to a friend or a family member, the UK Online centre community network has a free short course to help get people started using computers and the internet, called Online Basics. You can do the course at home, or at a local UK Online centre.

8 million people in the UK, mostly the over 65s or those out of work, have never used the internet. If you'd like to help someone get started using the internet the Go On Give An Hour website has some great tips.

There are plenty of places which'll teach you a language for a fee, yet you needn't pay a penny. There are a host of completely free websites and online tools which cater for every learning style.

See the Learn a Language for Free guide for a full run down of some of the best.