Life is a Learning Journey. We never stop learning; there are many types of learning – formal and informal.

From the day we are born we start learning. Learning is as essential to living as is eating and drinking. Without the knowledge we get from learning we wouldn’t know how to eat, talk, walk, count, read or write.

Learning is not only reserved for the growing baby, toddler, child, adolescent or teenager either.

As we grow up our interests often change. Our knowledge base grows and our understanding of the world around us changes and expands. We may have been reluctant learners at school and it is not until we are adults, often with families of our own, that we finally understand the importance of learning to make a satisfying and financially independent future for ourselves.

If we are unskilled or under-skilled we may feel that we are ‘dumb’ or ‘ignorant’ and often others’ may reinforce that belief, fulfilling our self-belief that what we can do now is all we can do.

Not so.

David Brandt writes, “Most of us understand how much more valuable even the simplest things in life are to use when we work hard to get/achieve them. It is that part of the rule of irony (the overcoming of limitations and the limitations/obstacles being tests themselves) that allow us to grow and become stronger. The sky may seem like it's falling, but it's not, nor is it the 'limit'. There is NO limit for us--how boring and terrible it would be to have everything given to us.”

He is saying that we need to help ourselves to learn new things. Without personal motivation we cannot possibly hope to learn, we need to invest in ourselves.

Sometimes we need a little help to get there ... and that is what HANDUP is trying to achieve.

HANDUP is asking the government to look at why they have cut access to a small stream of funding (the TRAINING INCENTIVE ALLOWANCE) that enables beneficiaries (those who receive the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB), Widow's Benefit, Invalids Benefit and Emergency Maintenance Allowance) to fund a shortfall in the cost of study that other funding avenues cannot fill and find a way to bridge the gap and give these people a hand up to study.

Most beneficiaries do what other students do – they take out student loans. But, as people with special circumstances, the student loan scheme does not cover all the costs involved in their study programmes and these costs cannot be teased out of their benefits as they are already tightly budgeted.

Help us campaign to either get FULL ACCESS to the TIA reinstated or put in place an affordable alternative. Together WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Go to www.handup.co.nz for more information