We are bombarded by newspaper adverts, TV adverts and mail through our door promising life-changing short and long-term college courses for both young and old to learn a new skill or brush up on old skills to get that dream job you have always wanted.

I am 46 and thought this would be a good idea to improve my knowledge, better myself in the workplace and offer a better service to my employer.

As a young man in the early 1980s, I did my apprenticeship as a detail draughtsman on an old conventional drawing board using pencils and rulers, not with the computer technology we have today.

But over the years of changing jobs by virtue of redundancy and economic situations, I drifted away from draughting and wanted to return to the profession I enjoyed.

I decided to get myself back up to speed with the latest technology, enrolled with Brighton and Hove City College, attended evening classes for computer-aided drawing and graduated two years later with City & Guilds Auto CAD 2D and 3D certificates.

My employer had offered to fund my college course in return for my newly-gained skills to assist in the productivity of their drawing office.

But the inevitable happened and I was told my job was at risk.

I started negotiations with the company to be relocated to the drawing office so relieving my now redundant post of goods-in/despatch officer.

I was told my services were no longer required by the company and finally made redundant at the end of December 2003 despite the company's policy of "investment in people", paying for my education and then throwing it all away.

More than 100 CVs later I still don't have the dream job I worked hard for and now face the rejection of being told I don't have enough experience and am too old for the job.

How can I gain the experience if not given the chance? And do my years of engineering knowledge and background count for nothing?

Just because my parents could not afford to send me to university, does this mean I can't compete with young graduates?

I sometimes feel all my efforts were a waste of time and money. It's true you are never too old to learn. But when you do learn, no one wants you. I now have to settle for a lesser-paid, unskilled job to survive. I feel I'm not alone.

-Martin Tudsbury, Brighton