YOU’D be amazed at what you can do at Old Trafford these days. You can go for coffee, visit the museum, shop in the Megastore, watch Man U play at home, spend an hour brushing up on your literacy skills in the Ability Suite . . .

Excuse me? Literacy classes in a football stadium? Well, yes, it’s part of Manchester United’s commitment to its local community, and this isn’t the only club that is using its place in locals’ hearts to do a bit of good.

Thirty clubs around the country are signed up to “Heading for Success”, a Department for Education and Skills project that links football clubs to nearby further education colleges, allowing adults who want to improve their basic skills to do just that only yards from the football pitch. “The Ability Suite is set out like an internet café,” says Trish Hirst, the chief executive of the Manchester United Foundation, which oversees the project. “It’s got IT equipment, is user-friendly, and has football photos on the walls.”

The football theme is crucial. Jackie Robin-son, the Heading for Success project manager at KPMG, the consultancy bringing the clubs and colleges together, says: “We asked ourselves how we might be able to capitalise on people’s passion for football. Also, we looked at where there are particular skills-for-life needs, and these locations coincide with where the biggest clubs are, such as Manchester and London.”

Manchester United is linked with South Trafford College, which has come up with football-related ways of teaching; a numeracy exercise, for example, might involve football statistics.

The success of the scheme depends on exactly how many of the 1,000 or so people already involved continue on with their education. But so far the relationships, especially in the Manchester United partnership, are working well. “We’ve got all the expertise we need there,” Hirst says. “The college is experienced in delivery and KPMG shares good practice from other clubs.”

Add to that Man U’s formidable PR machine and suddenly the employment and education prospects for thousands of fans who wouldn’t usually dream of setting foot inside a college are starting to look a little brighter. SARAH CAMPBELL

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