Anyone considering a return to full-time education under the VTOS programme which caters for long-term unemployed adults would be heartened by the experiences of VTOS students expressed in VTOS Spells Success, a Department of Education publication. The students' stories in the book are told with wit and candour and are as much a chronicle of self-discovery and self-development as a record of academic achievement. For many of the contributors to this volume, VTOS has opened doors and given them the impetus to find a new direction in their lives.